CONTRARY WINDS 

AND 

OTHER SERMON'S 



BY 

WM; Mf TAYLOR, D.D., LL.D. 

Pastor or the broadway tabernacle, new york. citf 



THIRD THOUSAND. 



NEW YORK : 
A. C. ARMSTRONG & SON 

51 East 10th Street, Near Broadway, 

1899. 



©CTYRIGHT, 1883, BY 

A. C. ARMSTRONG & SON 




MAH 2t> 1929 



Press of J. J. Little & Co. 
Astor Place, New York 



PREFACE. 



The favorable reception given to the former volume 
entitled " The Limitations of Life and other Ser- 
mons" has moved me, at the urgent and repeated 
solicitation of my friends the Publishers, to issue a 
companion to it in the shape of the present work. 
The discourses here presented to the reader were 
delivered in the ordinary course of my ministry, and 
have been chosen simply because of their bearing on 
topics of great present importance, and because of 
the testimonies to their helpfulness which I have 
received from many who heard them. They are 
printed now as they were preached at first, for the 
good that they may do, and my prayer is that the 
Spirit of God may accompany them with his quicken- 
ing and upbuilding influences. 

"Wm. M. Taylor. 

Broadway Tabernacle, 
New York, October, 1883. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 



Contrary Winds 7 

Chaff or Wheat ? 21 

Christ before Pilate— Pilate before Christ 37 

Captivities and How to Improve them 51 

Personal Independence the Result of Divine Redemption 65 

The Untrodden Path 80 

The Past Irrevocable 93 

The Vision of Elijah 107 

The Pleasures of Sin 121 

Affliction as Related to Life 136 

Opportunities and their Limit 150 

The Harvest of Retribution and Reward 169 

Debtors 186 

The Revelation at the Bush 200 

True Greatness 215 

The Seal of the Spirit 229 

Drifting 245 

The Inductive Study of the Scriptures 260 

An Open Door for Little Strength 279 

The Sorrowful "If" 292 

The Hidden Support of Life 309 

The Rectlfying Influence of the Sanctuary 325 

The Responsibilities of Life 341 

These Things Done and Others Not Left Undone 356 



CONTRARY WINDS. 



Matthew xiv. 24. — The wind was contrary. 

To get at all the lessons which are suggested by 
these words to those who care to go beneath the 
surface of the narratives of Scripture we must have 
a clear conception of the whole circumstances con- 
nected with the spending of this night of toil, by the 
disciples, on the Lake of Gennesaret. They had just 
returned from their first preaching tour though Gal- 
ilee ; and as, in the exuberance of their joy, they 
were telling Jesus " all things both what they had 
done and what they had taught," the followers of 
John the Baptist came with the sad tidings that Herod 
had caused their master to be put to death. This 
news at once revived in the Lord the remembrance of 
John's nobleness, and suggested to him the nearness 
of his own crucifixion. He saw that, with him too, 
matters were hastening to a crisis ; and, therefore, that 
he might prepare himself for that which was before 
him, and fortify his disciples against the difficulties 
and disappointments that were in store for them, he 
took them with him for a season of rest and retirement 
to the eastern side of the lake. 

But the inconsiderate selfishness of the people gave 
him no opportunity for relaxation, for as soon as they 
saw him setting out in the boat they started to walk 
round the head of the loch in great numbers, and, imme- 
diately on his landing, they crowded about him as they 
had done at Capernaum. Nor did he thrust them from 



8 



CONTRARY WINDS. 



him; but, after having taught them till far into the after- 
noon, he was so moved with compassion for them that 
he furnished a feast for them by miracle from the five 
loaves and two fishes, which were all the provisions 
available at the moment. The effect of this super- 
natural work was great. It roused the enthusiasm of 
the people to the highest pitch, so that they exclaimed 
"This is of a truth that prophet that should come into 
the world " : and they wished "to take him by force 
and make him a king." His own disciples, too, seem 
to have been uhwontedly stirred. "With their as yet 
carnal ideas regarding his kingdom, they were all too 
ready to second and support the proposal of the mul- 
titude ; and so, for their own sakes, as well as to prevent 
the crowd from rushing into a reckless enterprise, he 
sent them away to cross the lake by themselves, and 
after dismissing the people to their homes, he went up 
alone into the mountain to soothe and refresh his 
spirit by fellowship with his Father. 

While he was thus engaged, however, his disciples 
were called to contend with a furious storm, of a kind 
not uncommon on the sea of Galilee. That lake lies 
low, being, in fact, six hundred feet beneath the level 
of the Mediterranean, and the water-courses on its 
banks have cut out deep ravines which act like funnels 
to draw down the winds from the mountains, so that 
the storms are often both sudden and severe. On the 
present occasion the wind came down with such fury 
v that even strong rowers, like the fishermen apostles, 
could make little way against it, and after " toiling " 
for nine hours they had made no more than three 
miles. Thus it was with them until the fourth watch, 
when the Lord came to their relief, walking on the 
waves ; and after he entered the boat, the wind 
ceased, and they speedily reached " the other shore." 



CONTRARY WINDS. 



9 



Now, with these facts in mind, let us see what help 
we can derive for our daily lives from this toilsome 
rowing of the disciples against a contrary wind. 

I. Yery evidently, the first thing here suggested is 
that the way of duty is not always easy. In saying 
that I do not allude to the inner difficulties which we 
have frequently to overcome before we enter upon the 
path of obedience, but rather to those hindrances 
which come upon us from without, while we are 
honestly trying to go forward in the course which, be- 
lieving it to be commanded us by God, we have begun. 
These disciples were not very anxious to get into the 
boat at first. They had to be " constrained " by the 
personal effort of their Master himself. Had he not 
exerted on them such an amount of pressure as to 
make them feel that they would be going against his 
will if they should stay, they would much rather 
have remained with him. But after they had entered 
the boat, and had begun their rowing, there is no 
reason to believe that they were slack at their work. 
The smallness of the progress which they made was 
owing, not to anything about them, but only to the 
sudden uprising of a storm of contrary wind. 

Here, then, were men doing what had been clearly 
commanded by the Lord ; doing it too because they 
felt that they could not refuse without wounding his 
heart ; doing it, as there is reason to believe, with all 
their might ; and yet hindered by influences external 
to themselves, and altogether beyond their control. 
Now, when we put it so, we see in a moment that the 
situation of these disciples is not uncommon. I 
venture to say that there is no one here of any 
lengthened experience who has not had many days in 
his life when " the wind was contrary " unto him. We 
1* 



10 



CONTRARY WINDS. 



have had a duty laid upon us. It has not been of our 
own choosing. If we had been left to our own im- 
pulses we would much rather have done something 
else, but in a marvelous manner we have felt ourselves 
" shut up " to its performance. We have not been 
able to get past it. We have entered upon it because 
we felt we must do so. Our loyalty to the Lord has 
"constrained" us to undertake it; and yet, almost as 
soon as we begin, "the wind becomes contrary," and 
we have to contend with the greatest amount of diffi- 
culties, so that we are prone to cry " Why is this ? 
Have we mistaken altogether the indications of God's 
Spirit as to our duty in the case ? and if we have not, 
how comes it that he has hindered us in this 
fashion ? " How often one begins the day with the 
clear conviction that some important thing must be 
done by him before the evening ! He enters upon it 
early in the morning, but he has not proceeded far 
when he is interrupted ; and he has scarcely dismissed 
one intruder before another is announced. Thus it 
continues all the day, and at its close he sighs, and 
says, "Ah! me! the wind was contrary." And the 
next day may be a repetition of the same, so that he 
is tempted to make a choice between two conflicting 
obligations, and to neglect one for the sake of meeting 
another. 

And what is sometimes true thus of a single day in 
our history, may be so, also, of a whole section of life. 
Take the case, for example, of a youth in his choice of 
a profession. He is ingenuous, conscientious, prayer- 
ful. He does not wish to take any course of which 
his Saviour would not approve, and at last he feels 
himself shut in, suppose, to the ministry of the gos- 
pel. It is not that he is attracted toward it by any 
of its outward advantages ; but that he is impelled 



CONTRAEY WINDS. 



11 



into it by that inner consecration that will not let him 
stay out of it. He hears the Master's call, not in any 
mystic voice, but in that irrepressible " I cannot but " 
which springs up within him. He seems to himself 
to be drawn on by an irresistible attraction. He 
could not be happy, he could not say to his con- 
science that he had obeyed God, if he did not yield. 
And yet, after he begins to prepare himself for the 
work to which he thus devotes himself, he is beset 
with difficulties. Perhaps the parents who have here- 
tofore cheerfully supported him are beggared by some 
commercial crisis, and can help him no more ; or the 
death of a father may have thrown the weight of a 
household on his shoulders ; or some accident — as 
men call it — on the railway or in the steamboat may 
lay him for months, or perhaps longer, on a bed of 
weakness. And so he too, while following what he 
believed to be the will of God, is made to feel, to his 
own dismay and depression, that " the wind is con~ 
trary." 

What a thrilling illustration of the same thing 
we have in the case of the Apostle Paul and his visit 
to Rome ! He had long desired to go to that city, not 
from motives of curiosity, or from any wish to secure 
worldly fortune, but simply that he might help the 
Christians there by giving them some spiritual gifts, 
and might at the very center of the empire touch for 
Christ some springs of influence which would vibrate 
to its outermost circumference. Nor is this all. In 
that desire he had been encouraged by his Lord ; and 
so, feeling it to be clearly his duty, he sets out for 
Jerusalem, intending to go thence to the imperial city 
by the directest route. But all the way thither he is 
met by entreaties not to go, and even by prophecies 
of coining evil. On his arrival there he is imprisoned 



12 



CONTRARY WINDS. 



in the castle of Antonia. And though, on the second 
night after his apprehension, the Lord stood by him 
and assured him that he would still get to Rome, yet 
he had to go through two years of imprisonment and 
through peril of shipwreck and long delay at Malta 
to his destination. That was a dreary duration of 
contrary wind ; and I often wonder what Paul thought 
as he looked back on the clear assurance which he re- 
ceived from his Master that he should go to Rome, 
and then glanced at the chain by which he was 
bound, and the untoward influences by which he was 
surrounded. Did no misgiving ever arise in his heart 
as to whether or not he was right in seeking to go to 
Rome ? Or, if he was unwavering in that conviction, 
was he ever tempted to think that God had no control 
over the occurrences of human life or the elements of 
nature? Or, feeling himself unable to unravel these 
mysteries, did he take refuge in his own words of be- 
lieving assurance, " We know that all things work 
together for good to them that love God, who are the 
called according to his purpose " ? I cannot tell. 
Rut I can clearly see what a trial came to him thus 
from hindrances in the very providence of God which 
kept him from doing that which God himself had laid 
upon him. 

And many of us who have sought the "further- 
ance of the gospel " among our fellow men, in obe- 
dience to the injunction of the Lord, have seemed 
to be providentially retarded in the same way. W e 
begin, say, in a spirit of simple devotion to Christ, 
and because he has so brought the matter to our door 
that we cannot pass it on to another, some effort for 
the evangelization of the careless in our neighbor- 
hood. We are sure we are seeking a good end, but 
" the wind is contrary." We are met with freezing 



CONTRARY WINDS. 



13 



indifference among those from whom we expected co- 
operation. One difficulty is suggested after another, 
and so soon as we surmount one obstacle another 
makes its appearance. We never seem to get into 
plain sailing; always there are breakers ahead, or 
something to be guarded against. If it all depended 
upon us, we should go on with energy ; but alas ! our 
energy evaporates in a large degree in holding those 
constant negotiations and taking those continual pre- 
cautions which are needed in order to keep everybody 
sweet and to prevent friction. Let any one set out in 
earnest to do anything positive or aggressive for 
Christ, and all experience declares that before he has 
gone far he will have to face a contrary wind. These 
are the conflicts which must have given birth to the 
following lines of Faber, and the mere repetition of 
his words may be itself a comfort to us : 

" Oh! it is hard to work for God, 
To rise and take His part, 
Upon this battle-field of earth, 
And not sometimes lose heart. 

" He hides himself so wondrously, 
As though there were no God : 
He is least seen when all the powers 
Of ill are most abroad. 

" Or, he deserts us at the hour 
The fight is all but lost, 
And seems to leave us to ourselves 
Just when we need Him most. 

" Yet, there is less to try our faith 
In our mysterious creed, 
Than in the godless look of earth, 
In these our hours of need." 



II. Now, what shall we say to sustain ourselves amid 
an experience like that ? This, at least, we may take 



14 



CONTRARY WINDS. 



to ourselves for comfort, namely, that we are not re- 
sponsible for the wind. That is a matter outside of 
us and beyond our control, and for all such things we 
are not to be blamed. Now, that takes the sting out 
of the trial. It does not diminish the difficulty ; it does 
not make the prosecution of our work less arduous ; 
the " toiling in rowing " will be demanded all the 
same, but there will be more heart, and better, for its 
continuance. Nothing breaks the spirit like conscious 
guilt ; but, on the other hand, nothing braces it like 
conscious integrity. If a difficulty rises before me in 
God's providence, apart from any agency or culpa- 
bility of my own, then I am in better mood to meet 
and overcome it than I should be if I recognized in it 
some result of my own folly. A feeling of this sort, 
I think, must have throbbed in Paul's heart when 
he wrote to the Bomans, " If it be possible, as much 
as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men." He had 
known what it was to have men fired with antagonism 
to him, but he had known also the riches of the con- 
solation that consists in the consciousness that he had 
done nothing to deserve it ; and so he would have his 
readers see to it that when they were hindered it 
should be by a " wind " which they did not raise, 
and not by a " breeze " which they had themselves 
created. And the same thought must have been in 
Peter's mind when he bids his readers be careful that 
when they suffered it should be for " well doing" and 
not for " evil doing." The obstacles which we make 
for ourselves are those which give us the sorest pain ; 
but though that for which I am not responsible may 
be a great hindrance to me, it can never be a 
real personal burden. One may grumble about the 
weather, — though even that would be a sin, — but in- 
convenient though disagreeable weather is, we do not 



CONTRARY WINDS. 



15 



number* that among our sorest afflictions. The con- 
trary wind is in God's providence, and is to be made 
the best of ; nay, so soon as we recognize that it is in 
God's providence, we will make the best of it. 

But another thought, suggested by the history from 
which my text is taken, comes to our support here, 
this, namely, that the attention required for bearing 
up against the contrary wind may take us, for the time 
being, out of the way of some subtle temptation. 
Think of the circumstances out. of which these disci- 
ples had just come. The multitude desired there and 
then to take measures for the proclamation of Christ 
as a King ; and, with their low and earthly notions of 
the sort of kingdom which Messiah was to establish, 
the near prospect of his entrance in this way upon it 
had a strange fascination for the disciples. They were 
eager for just such a denouement as the great mass of 
the people wanted. How eager is evident from the 
fact that, on the following day, after their Master had 
refused to be a mere temporal ruler, and had thereby 
so estranged many from him that they "went back 
and walked no more with him," he was moved to 
say to the twelve, as if he saw some signs of wavering 
even in them, "Will ye also go away ? " So we gather 
that he sent them away across the lake that night, and 
left them by themselves to contend with adverse winds, 
just to keep them out of harm's way, and to give them 
something else meanwhile to think of than the glitter- 
ing allurements of worldly greatness. And how often 
have we seen that a contrary wind has done the same 
thing for ourselves? We have not been conscious 
of it at the moment ; but after the toil has been long 
past, and we have been able, from the height of some 
later vantage ground, to look back upon the whole ex- 
perience, and put everything in it into its proper per - 



16 



CONTKAEY WINDS. 



spective, we can see that it came just in time to prevent 
ns from being moved by some dear deceitful dream 
that was at the moment magnetizing us by its influ- 
ence. We lament the interruptions that have kept us 
from finishing the work which we had laid out for a 
day, and feel almost aggravated at the delay; yet some* 
how, through the experience of these very interrup- 
tions, we have been kept from doing that work in a 
way that would have brought dishonor on ourselves, 
or given the enemies of the Lord occasion to blas- 
pheme. The mode which at first had a strong charm 
for us did in the interval lose its attraction, and wiser 
thoughts prevailed in the end ; or the work grew in 
our idea by the delay, so that it became something 
grander than, without that, we could have thought of 
making it. 

So, again, when we have been held back by sick- 
ness, or other providential restraint from accom- 
plishing that on which, as the servants of God, we 
were resolutely bent, we have lived to find out that, if 
that hindrance had not come just then, we should have 
been in danger of preferring personal ambition to the 
approbation of the Lord. And, in general, all such 
adverse providences have operated in keeping us 
nearer the mercy-seat, and in leading us to depend 
more implicitly, or, as the hymn has put it, to " lean " 
more " hardly," on the support of the Lord. Let us 
not forget, therefore, that the buffeting with an adverse 
wind has in it a preventive influence, which may help to 
keep us from something worse. Better far a strong 
head- wind than a fog ; for in the fog an iceberg may 
be veiled, and collision with that would be destruc- 
tion. But, here, the fog may be, as in the case of 
these disciples it was, in the vague and misty notions 
which we may have of Jesus and his kingdom ; and 



CONTRARY WINDS. 



17 



anything that takes our thoughts away from the 
secret dangers lurking in all such speculations is a 
blessing, no matter how rough the experience may be. 

But still another thought comes to our support 
here, for there may be much in contending with a con' 
trary wind, like that which we have been describing, 
to prepare us for higher service in the cause of Christ. 
Look once more at these disciples. Up till this time 
they had been in visible companionship with the 
Lord, from the hour when they had been called to 
follow him, with but the exception of that preaching 
circuit from which they had just recently returned. 
But he was not to be with them thus all through their 
lives. The day was coming when he would be cruci- 
fied ; and though, after his crucifixion and burial, 
there was to be a resurrection from the grave, yet that 
was to be followed by his ascension into glory, after 
which he would no more be with them in the body. 
It was needful, therefore, that, before that time ar- 
rived, they should have some experience of what it 
was to be absent from him ; and in this night upon 
the deep they had what I may call a rehearsal in 
symbol of some of the difficulties with which they 
would have to contend after he was taken up into 
heaven. He withdrew to the mountain to give them 
a foretaste of what should come when he went up to 
heaven; and I have a firm conviction that much of 
that persistence of the apostles in the face of perse- 
cution which so strongly impresses us as we read the 
early chapters of the Acts of the Apostles had its 
root in the remembrance of what they had learned in 
this night's contending with adverse winds on the 
Galilean lake. This was one of their first experi- 
ments in walking alone, and it helped to steady them 
afterwards. 



18 



CONTRAKY WINDS. 



Now, it is quite similar with many believers yet. 
Take the case of a young man studying for the min- 
istry, and compelled, in the course of his curriculum, 
to do battle with difficulties ; and those who have had 
such a fight to go through will tell you that no college 
or seminary could ever have given them so valuable a 
preparation for their life work as that conflict secured 
to them. Those five years of waiting between the 
obtaining of his license to preach and the securing of 
a parish, which seemed at the time even to Thomas 
Guthrie to indicate that he had mistaken his profes- 
sion, were, as he himself afterwards declared, among 
the most useful to him of all his early life ; for during 
a part of these he " walked the hospitals " of Paris, 
and so fitted himself for work in the dens of the Edin- 
burgh Cowgate ; and during the rest, he conducted a 
bank in his native town, and so familiarized himself 
with business that he could speak with wisdom and 
intelligence to men of every occupation, and of all 
ranks. And the same is seen in many other men. 
The very necessity of rowing against the wind devel- 
ops new strength, and brings latent resources into 
play. It is questionable if John Kitto would ever 
have been an author had it not been for " the con- 
trary wind " of deafness which blew upon him from 
the time that he was twelve years old ; and so much 
have difficulties to do with the development of char- 
acter, and the attainment of a sphere of exalted 
usefulness in the world, that we may say that the 
greatest of all misfortunes that can befall a youth is 
to have nothing but good fortune. It may help to 
nerve us against despondency, therefore, to know that 
our present conflicts are the prophecies, if we but 
fight them bravely through, of future eminence. 

But once more here, as we bend to our oars while 



CONTRARY WINDS. 



19 



the wind is contrary, we may take to ourselves the 
comfort that the Lord Jesus is closely watching us. 
The parallel passage in Mark tells us that " he saw 
them toiling in rowing." They did not know it, for 
it was dark. But it is written here for our support 
in similar circumstances. " He saw them toiling in 
rowing, for the wind was contrary unto them." If 
they had known that it w r ould have put new heart 
into them ; for they would have felt sure that no harm 
would be suffered to come to them beneath his eye, 
and they would have been convinced that whenever 
he saw it to be necessary he would come to their 
relief. But precisely that, this narrative as a whole 
is designed to teach us. It tells us that though Jesus 
is unseen, he is still looking down with interest upon 
us ; that he is making intercession for us before the 
heavenly mercy seat ; and that in some way, at the 
right time, he will come to succor us. So we may 
leave all care about the issue, and attend, meanwhile, 
to the rowing. That is our present duty, let us there- 
fore hold to it steadily, bravely, hopefully. Nor let us 
be disappointed if the fourth watch of the night should 
come before help appear. Eelief will come ; so again I 
say, let us work hopefully. There is all the difference in 
the world between working with hope and without it ; 
or, using the language of Scripture, between a living 
hope and the hope that is dying or dead. The sailor 
on the raft sinks into inactivity so long as there is no 
vessel in sight ; but let a ship appear on the far hori- 
zon and immediately he is alert, and seeks by every 
means in his power to attract the attention of those 
on board, if haply he may be saved. In the same 
way, if we lose the hope of Christ's help we shall 
give up rowing against the wind. But as hope revives 
within us we shall put forth more strength. Let 



20 



CONTRARY WINDS. 



those in a beleaguered garrison be signaled that relief 
is near, and though they be on the verge of starvation, 
they will hold out until it comes ; and so let a Chris- 
tian keep hope, and he will keep persistence, for here, 
too, comes in that pregnant saying of the Apostle, 
" we are saved by hope." "What a contrary wind that 
was which blew on Milton during the long years of 
his blindness ! Yet he held on, and held out. Here 
are his words : 

" Yet I argue not 
Against Heaven's hand or will, nor bate a jot 
Of heart or hope, but still bear up and steer 
Eight onward." 

And his glorious epic was the magnificent outcome. 
Thus let us hold on, no matter what we are required to 
contend against, and let us rest assured that at length 
Christ will come to us with such strengthening influen- 
ces that we shall rise to something nobler than with- 
out our struggle we could ever have attained. Let us, 
then, toil on ! It is but a little while at the longest. No 
contrary wind can last forever. By and by Christ will 
come to us, and then there will be peace. Yes, and 
after a time we shall reach " the other shore " ; and 
when we touch that we shall be done with difficulties. 
So, as the father of the well-known Andrew Marvell 
said, just before he entered the boat in which, as he 
was crossing the Humber, he went down and was 
drowned, " Ho ! for Heaven ! " What though the 
waves be rough ? Ho ! for heaven ! "What though the 
wind be contrary ? Ho ! for Heaven ! What though 
the labor be exhausting ? Ho ! for Heaven ! 

And when the shore is won at last, 
Who will count the billows past ? 



Nov. 28, 1880. 



CHAFF OR WHEAT? 



Jeremiah xxiii. 28.— The prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a 
dream, and he that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully. 
What is the chaff to the wheat? saith the Lord. 

The prophet Jeremiah lived in evil days. He was, 
in fact, almost the only witness-bearer for Jehovah in 
his generation, for the people had sunk into uttermost 
depravity, and were fast ripening for judgment. At 
the time when he uttered the words of my text, Jehoi- 
achin, the grandson of Josiah, was upon the throne of 
Judah, which he filled for only four months ; and 
Nebuchadnezzar was preparing the expedition which, 
within a few weeks, was to take Jerusalem captive, 
and to carry to Babylon, as prisoners of war, many 
thousands of its citizens. In vain the prophet raised 
his warning voice. To no purp ose did he entreat the 
people to return unto the Lord, and the monarch to 
make peace with the Babylonian emperor. It was his 
lot, Cassandra-like, to foretell things which no one 
would believe ; and to have his efforts thwarted by 
men of whom better things might have been expected, 
For his most pronounced antagonists were among those 
who had been educated as prophets, and who called 
themselves the servants of the Lord. Ever as he gave 
his message they stood forth to contradict him, and 
claimed that they and not he truly represented the 
mind of Jehovah. They despised him, and said, " The 
Lord hath said ye shall have peace ; and they said 
unto every one that walked after the imagination of 



22 



CHAFF OR WHEAT? 



his own heart, Ko evil shall come upon you." But 
he affirmed concerning them that they "spake a 
vision of their own heart and not out of the mouth of 
the Lord " ; and, as the test between them, he made 
his appeal to the results. They were continually ex- 
claiming " I have dreamed ; I have dreamed !" " Well 
then," he cries to the people, "let them tell their 
dreams, and let me proclaim God's word ; then out of 
the issue ye shall know which of us is his rightful 
messenger. ' The prophet that hath a dream, let him 
tell a dream, and he that hath my word, let him speak 
my word faithfully ; what is the chaff to the wheat ? 
saith the Lord.' Put it to the test of experiment, 
and try it by the results produced in each case, then 
ye shall know which is the true prophet and which 
the false." 

But primarily applicable as these words are to the 
utterances of Jeremiah, we may broaden them out so 
as to include under them the whole word of God ; and 
we may challenge all human dreams which men 
have set up in antagonism to it with the same 
confidence ; and say " What is the chaff to the 
wheat? " As the Saviour himself has expressed it, "by 
their fruits ye shall know them." The Baconian 
principle is that everything is to be received which 
stands on the basis of experiment ; and, judged by their 
results, we never need fear for the Sacred Scriptures, 
for in their own proper department they are " wheat," 
and everything which men have put in their place 
and set up against them is " chaff." This is the testi- 
mony of human experience as a whole, and in a day 
when multitudes are seeking to put the Bible once 
again upon its trial, it may be well to bring this out 
prominently before your attention. 

My theme, then, this morning is the superiority of the 



CHAFF OR WHEAT? 



23 



divine word to the merely human dreams by which men 
have sought to displace it. But, before I enter upon it, 
let me carefully define what I mean by "human 
dreams." I do not include under such an appellation 
the discoveries of science which have made this cen- 
tury illustrious. So far from being " dreams," these are 
well-accredited facts ; and they are a part of God's 
revelation to men as really as are the writings of 
prophets and apostles. They have not come to us in 
the same way, indeed, and no supernatural influence 
was required either to perceive them or to communicate 
them. But nature, as some call it, is in my view only 
the first volume of God's book, and everything which 
is really found in it contributes to a better under- 
standing of him. Still, just as the Bible was not 
designed to teach men science, so science is not com- 
petent to instruct men in those subjects which are 
distinctively treated of in the Bible, and when it 
enters into that department, science is a mere dreamer, 
even as many who are well acquainted with the Script- 
ures are no better than dreamers when they speak of 
scientific topics. I refer now, therefore, not to the 
discoveries of science, but rather to those views regard- 
ing God, and the soul, and the hereafter which multi- 
tudes in our times are seeking to put in antagonism to 
the word of God, — and I say that these "human 
dreams " when tested by experience are found to be 
chaff, while the word of God, when similarly tried, 
is discovered to be wheat. Now let us see whether 
I can make good my assertion. I shall arrange my 
statements under one or two particulars. 

I. In the first place, then, I remark that the human 
dream is empty ; but the divine word is substantial. 
Chaff is a mere husk, but wheat is all grain. So the 



24 



CHAFF OR WHEAT? 



antagonists of the Bible deal in vague speculations, or 
empty negations ; whereas the Scriptures are positive 
and satisfying. The agnostic says that we cannot know 
anything save that of which we can take cognizance 
with our bodily senses ; and so he relegates the world 
of spirit, and even the existence of God, into the 
category of the unknown and the unknowable. The 
atheist deals in absolute negation, and affirms that 
there is nothing but the visible, and the here, — 
no God, no soul, no future life. And the sceptic 
alleges that there is utter uncertainty as to whether 
there is a God, a soul, or a hereafter. Now, this 
being the case, it is no calumny to say of these 
systems that they are empty things. They have 
nothing in them on which a man can lay hold. They 
are as unsubstantial as a dream ; as shadowy as a 
vision of the night. But the Scriptures, on the other 
hand, are positive. Their very first utterance — 
"In the beginning God" — brings God into the 
front ; and there is that within us which is respon- 
sive to their assertion of his existence. His I Am 
awakes an echo in ourselves which is not only the 
assertion of our own spiritual being, but the recogni- 
tion of his. Moreover the Scriptures speak to our 
consciences in such a way as not only to reveal our 
sinfulness, but also to unfold the way of forgiveness ; 
and, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the 
dead, they bring the future life to light — so that what 
was before a perhaps, or a mere possibility, becomes 
an absolute certainty. 

But you may say all that is mere assertion. "Well, 
let it be put to the proof. Try the human dream in 
the hour of bereavement. What has it to say to 
the mourner weeping over the casket that holds his 
dead beloved ? I challenge infidelity to utter then a 



CHAFF OR WHEAT? 



25 



word which has in it a single particle of comfort for 
the stricken one. If he choose to repress the in- 
tuitions of his own nature, and shut his eyes to the 
evidences of intelligent design which exist in the exter- 
nal world, one may affirm that there is no God. 
But what comfort is there in that at such a time ? If 
he please to turn away from the proofs which so 
plentifully exist in support of the credibility of the 
Gospel narratives, another may allege that the whole 
story of Jesus Christ is a myth, and that his resur- 
rection from the dead is a delusion : but what conso- 
lation is there in that under such an experience ? If he 
desires to say something kindly, a third may speak of 
the " common law," and sadly refer to the universality 
of death : but what is there in that to dry a tear ? and 
who can wonder at the indignation with which the 
poet treated it, when, in words which seem to suggest 
that he had this very text in mind, he cries : 

"One writes, that ' other friends remain.' 

That 'loss is common to the race/ 

And common is the common place 
And vacant chaff, well meant for grain. — 
That loss is common would not make 

My own less bitter — rather more: 

Too common : never morning wore 
To evening but some heart did break." 

But now, suppose the friends have been walking to- 
gether in the faith of Christ, and one has been taken 
and the other left. Draw near to the survivor, and say, 
" Let not your heart be troubled ; ye believe in God, 
believe also in me. In my Father's house are many 
mansions ; if it were not so I would have told you. I 
go to prepare a place for you. "We know that if our 
earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we 
have a building of God, an house not made with 
2 



26 



CHAFF OR WHEAT? 



hands, eternal in the heavens." And what is the re« 
suit ? The tears flow on, but the bitterness is taken 
out of the sorrow. The memory is transmuted into a 
hope ; for the parting is seen to be but for a season, 
while the reunion is to be forever. The loved one is 
missed; but even in the sadness caused by the ab- 
sence there is a bright anticipation of the happy be- 
yond. Now, as I contrast these two ways of dealing 
with sorrow, am I not warranted to say, " What is the 
chaff to the wheat ? " " No doubt," you reply, " but that 
does not prove that the Scripture revelation is true." 
And to that I answer, that there is more of proof in it 
than you think for, since its adaptation to meet the 
need of the mourner is itself an indorsement of its 
worth. The specific in medicine has won its recogni- 
tion when it is seen to be unfailing. In like manner 
the power of the Gospel to comfort the mourner es- 
tablishes its claim to be received as the divine specific 
for his grief, and he will not give it up unless he gets 
something better in its place ; least of all will he part 
with it for that which is unsubstantial as an airy 
nothing. 

II. But, in the second place, I remark that the human 
dream is destitute of nourishment for man's spiritual 
nature, while the divine word is strengthening, and 
ministers to its growth. Chaff does not feed ; but 
wheat gives nutriment. So mere speculation has in 
it no educating and ennobling influence. It occupies 
the mind without strengthening the character. The 
man who indulges in it makes no progress ; but, in- 
stead of flowing onward with the current, he is caught 
in some whirling eddy, round which he is continually 
revolving. The sceptics of to-day are no farther on 
than those of the early centuries; and agnosticism 



CHAFF OR WHEAT? 



27 



was as fully developed in ancient Athens as it is in 
any of our modern cities. But the Christian believer 
grows. His character is ever gaining new develop- 
ment. He never reaches his ideal, but still " follows 
after." The human being lives by faith. He must 
believe something. He cannot move a single step 
otherwise ; and when he loses all faith he comes to a 
standstill. That is a general law, and so we need not 
be surprised to find it hold in reference to spiritual 
things. Scepticism puts an arrest on progress. It 
stimulates the critical faculty into excess ; and, instead 
of stirring a man up to the formation and development 
of his own character, it makes him a mere anatomist 
of the characters of others. I think, if you examine, 
you will find that the great majority of mere critics 
have become so through their lack or loss of personal 
religious faith. "What a contrast, in this regard, there is 
between the lives of the two Frenchmen, Yinet and 
St. Beuve ! They were companions in youth, and, in- 
deed, friends through life. But St. Beuve lost his 
religious faith, and became a literary critic, one of 
the very best of critics, indeed, yet only a critic, de- 
lighting the readers of his " Causeries du Lundi " 
with his expositions of the systems of other men and 
his estimates of their worth ; but Yinet, who retained 
his faith to the last, became a producer himself, added 
something great to the thought and work of his time, 
and earned the right to be called the " Chalmers of 
Switzerland." 

Now that is a typical instance. But if you wish to 
find my statement confirmed by an American experi- 
ment, take the case of those who went into the Brook 
Farm enterprise, and you will find that the growth 
of them all had been checked by speculation ending 
to a greater or lesser extent in unbelief. They all had 



28 



CHAFF OR WHEAT? 



the critical faculty sharpened ; but they were all, even 
then, at their full growth, and they never got farther. 
They had little or nothing of the constructive about 
them ; and the most they have done, either in litera- 
ture or in society, has been in the way of criticism. 
Their work has been serviceable to those who are 
already believers, and who knew how to take advan- 
tage of it for their constructive purposes ; but they did 
little in that way themselves. To the same class be- 
longs that eminent English philosopher who has lately 
been visiting our shores, and who, after having been 
entertained by the evolutionists of our country, set sail 
yesterday for his home. 45 " You read, I doubt not, with 
interest, his exceedingly thoughtful remarks about 
Americans in the interview with which he honored a 
privileged reporter. Among other wholesome truths 
he said, regarding fitness for free institutions, " It is 
essentially a question of character, and only in a sec- 
ondary degree a question of knowledge." And again, 
in regard to indifference among the people to 
public abuses, he reiterated the opinion, " Not lack of 
information, but lack of certain moral sentiments, is 
the root of the evil." This emphasis of character is 
most admirable; and in that, as you well know 
from my frequent references to it, I thoroughly agree 
with him. His diagnosis is excellent ; but what does 
he propose as the remedy ? How are we to get this 
character and these moral sentiments ? Alas ! in 
answer to such questions he is very largely silent. 
He has a small sneer at "the little which religious 
teachers have been doing these two thousand years," 
and a vague inference from biological truths to the effect 
" that the eventual mixture of the allied varieties of 



* The reference is to Mr. Herbert Spencer. 



CHAFF OE WHEAT? 



the Aryan race will produce here a more powerful 
type of man than has hitherto existed" ; and that is 
all ! So moral sentiments are to be the growth of a 
mixture of races, and the only hope for us of the 
present generation is that we are in the way of evolv- 
ing for the far-off future a very high ultimate form of 
national life. Said I not truly that in all these men 
the critical was the predominant quality, and that 
they had little or nothing of the constructive in them ? 
Evolution ! as well may a man endeavor to lift him- 
self by his own garments as seek to elevate him- 
self through such means. Nothing can be evolved 
that has not first been involved ; and though it may 
" split the ears of the groundlings " to talk of the 
little that religious teachers have done, there is noth- 
ing that can make character or elevate the race like 
the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. What made 
the Pilgrim Fathers, and gave its character to New 
England? "Was it not the faith of the gospel of the 
Lord Jesus ? It is true, indeed, as our own poet has 
said, that 

" God had sifted three kingdoms to find the wheat for his planting, 
Then had sifted the wheat, as the living seed of a nation." 

But they were " the believers " who remained. Their 
faith made them the " fittest " to survive. And to men- 
tion no more, what made Scotland, and put its people 
in the van of Europe? Was it not the same faith 
in the same gospel ? The truth is, that all that has 
been secured in character during the last eighteen 
centuries, in the way of deepening, broadening and 
elevating it, has been secured in connection with the 
efforts of religious teachers. The progress of the 
past has been owing more to the word of God than 
to all else combined ; and so, even in the face of Mr. 



30 



CHAFF OR WHEAT? 



Spencer's allegations, I dare to ask, "What is the 
chaff to the wheat ? " 

III. But this leads me to remark, in the third place, 
that the " human dream " has no aggressiveness in it 
to arrest or overcome the evils that are in the world, 
but the divine word is regenerating and reform- 
ing. " Is not my word like as a fire ? saith the Lord, 
and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces? " 
A venerable old man, who has been during the 
greater part of a long life before the public, and 
who has been highly respected by all his asso- 
ciates, is now lying seriously ill.* He has been 
known mostly as a politician ; but within the last 
six years he has given very serious attention to re- 
ligious matters, and in a long conversation which 
I had with him some months ago he delighted me 
with the insight which he gave me into his spiritual 
experience. His eye was dimmed, for he was nearly 
blind ; but his mind was clear and bright as ever, and 
I will not soon forget the radiance which illumined 
his countenance when I thanked him for a letter on 
this very subject which he sent two years ago to the 
New York Herald, and which is now printed as a tract 
by the American Tract Society. I speak of Mr. 
Thurlow Weed ; and I am glad here to direct atten- 
tion to his words, since no one can accuse him of pro- 
fessional prejudice, and every one must accept him as 
a competent and unbiased witness. Let me quote 
the following sentences, illustrative of the regenerat- 
ing influence of the truth : " Our city furnishes many 
examples of the beneficence of religion. Forty years 
ago a locality too well known as the * Five Points/ 



*Mr. Weed died a few days after this sermon was delivered. 



CHAFF OR WHEAT? 



31 



with a population of several thousands, was the home 
of the vilest of the vile, and the resort of others 
equally debased. Men, women, and children, of all 
nationalities and colors, herded together, differing 
only in the degrees of crime and the depths of prof- 
ligacy habitually practised. Their days were passed 
in either idleness or depredations. Their nights were 
spent in dance-house debaucheries. All healthy or 
wholesome influences were excluded. Children grew 
up to become either street beggars or inmates of the 
almshouse, and their parents filled penitentiaries and 
prisons. Thsse orgies continued year after year, de- 
fiant and aggressive, until that pandemonium was in- 
vaded by Christian men and women whose patience 
would not tire, whose courage was indomitable, and 
whose devotion has been rewarded by a moral and 
religious reformation so complete that no part of our 
city is now more quiet and orderly than the once 
dreaded ' Five Points.' Thousands of children, then 
growing up either vagabonds or culprits, are now at- 
tending schools, in which they are stimulated by pre- 
cept and example to live industrious and virtuous 
lives. Instead, therefore, of going forth idle, igno- 
rant, and vicious children to prey upon society, the 
destitute and orphan children of the ' Five Points,' 
prepared for usefulness by moral and religious train- 
ing, find happy homes in our rapidly-developing 
"Western States and Territories. 

"Again/ 5- eight years ago, Water Street and its sur- 
roundings northward from Peck slip had a notoriety 
almost as unenviable as that of the 'Five Points.' 
That region was rife with drunkenness, burglaries, 
pugilism, and their kindred vices. Jerry McAuley 



* Now ten. 



32 



CHAFF OR WHEAT? 



was conspicuous in all that was wicked and demoral- 
izing. He had the reputation of being a terror to the 
precinct, a reputation which, by his own confession, 
was deserved. But this disturber of the public peace 
was converted, and then he resolved to devote the re- 
mainder of his life to the service of his Master, and, 
with a faithful, affectionate wife as a helper, he has 
given himself to labor for the salvation of others. For 
a long time the hisses and howlings of his former asso- 
ciates seriously disturbed his meetings, but courage, 
perseverance and patience finally prevailed, and his 
work now progresses without interruption. The gen- 
eral character of the neighborhood has been improved ; 
its social and moral tone and atmosphere have been 
purified. Sailor boarding-houses have been reformed- 
Sailors now carry their Bibles with them to sea. 
Moody and Sankey hymns are sung in forecastles. 
Hundreds of half-naked and hungry wives and chil- 
dren, by the conversion of drunken husbands and 
fathers, now rejoice in comfortable and happy homes. 
The Mission church is crowded every week day and 
evening, and three times on Sunday, with intelligent 
Christian men and women, who, rescued from garrets 
and gutters, are now reputable citizens, enjoying the 
fruits of their industry, and relating with grateful 
hearts the miseries of their past, the joys of their 
present, and the hopes of their future. By all who 
' went to scoff, but remained to pray,' Jerry McAuley 
and his exemplary wife are regarded with affection, 
and will be remembered with gratitude."" 

* Mr. McAuley has since removed to the Cremorne Mission in West 
Thirty-second Street, where he carries on a work equally remarkable 
with that above described ; while Mr. O'Brien has succeeded him in 
Water Street, with, if possible, still more marked success than his 
predecessor had. 



CHAFF OE WHEAT? 



33 



These are some of the recent fruits of the gospel 
in reformatory and regenerating work, of which we 
are ourselves eye-witnesses. But now, where shall 
we look for anything like similar results from those 
who are the votaries of the human " dreams " of ag- 
nosticism, scepticism or infidelity ? "What has any 
one of these done to improve the characters of indi- 
vidual men, or elevate society, or bless the world? 
And had not Mr. Weed a right to conclude his letter 
with this challenge : " And now I invite the advocate 
of infidelity, or any of his followers, to inform the 
public how and to what extent they have profited by 
his missionary labors in this city ; what salutary re- 
forms he has inaugurated, or even suggested ; or in 
what manner and to what extent he has contributed 
to the general welfare or happiness of his fellow- 
citizens " ? 

There is an annual record of Christian work in this 
city, issued by Mr. Lewis Jackson, of the City Mis- 
sion, which may illustrate the same thing. It is an 
extensive document, and represents many agencies, 
and much expenditure of effort and of means. It 
shows, too, that large results have been secured ; but 
where is the report of similar doings among the 
" dreamers of dreams " ? What hospitals have they 
reared ? what missions have they inaugurated ? what 
sinners have they reclaimed? You read, as I did, 
with deepest interest, those recent articles in the New 
York Times about our city churches. Many things in 
them were glaringly inaccurate, but some were calcu- 
lated to awaken very serious thoughts in our minds ; 
yet one was to me matter of devoutest gratitude, and 
that was the fact that by these churches two mil- 
lions and a half of dollars are given annually for 
enterprises of benevolence, which have for their ob- 
2* 



34 



CHAFF OR WHEAT? 



ject not merely the physical, but also, and especially, 
the moral and spiritual welfare of men. All these 
agencies are in full operation, and all of them are 
attended, through the blessing of God's Spirit, with a 
larger or smaller measure of success. What is agnos- 
ticism, or scepticism, or infidelity attempting in the 
same direction ? and what success would any of them 
meet, if it should make the effort ? I ask these ques- 
tions without any fear for the answer, and here 
again I dare renew my challenge : " What is the chaff 
to the wheat ? saith the Lord." Let the advocates of 
infidelity either do more than we have accomplished, 
or let them forever hold their peace. 

IY. But I have time only to name my fourth re- 
mark, which is, that the human dream is short-lived, but 
the divine word is enduring. Chaff is easily blown 
away, but the wheat remains. And so the " little 
systems " of human speculation " have their day and 
cease to be " ; but " the word of the Lord endureth for- 
ever." Each new antagonist, as he has arisen, has 
boasted that he would destroy the influence of the gos- 
pel ; but, somehow, he passes away, and it continues. 
Like some impregnable fortress, in the hollows around 
which you may pick up specimens of the various 
missiles which from age to age have been hurled 
against it, whilst its walls remain unbroken, the 
word of God has withstood for centuries the attacks 
of many successive armies of antagonists. The assail- 
ants have gone — the Book abides ; and as of old it 
was written, so we may write again — " They are dead 
who sought the young child's life." The arguments 
of the first antagonists of the gospel are now read 
only in the pages of the apologists who replied to 
them. And in more recent times, how many ad versa- 



CHAFF OK WHEAT? 



35 



ries have advanced to assail it, with haughty boasting 
that it would speedily be defeated, but with the 
same result? Voltaire said that it took twelve men 
to establish the gospel, but he would show that one 
man could overthrow it. Yet the gospel is here 
studied by millions, and how few now read Voltaire ? 
A certain German rationalist alleged that the gospel 
was not worth twenty-five years' purchase ; but half a 
century has gone since he wrote, and the gospel is 
more vigorous than ever, while he is forgotten. Again 
and again, in the estimation of its adversaries, it ought 
to have been demolished ; but it will not die, for there is 
deep truth in Beza's motto for the French Protestant 
Church, which surmounts the device of an anvil sur- 
rounded by blacksmiths, at whose feet are many 
broken hammers, and which I once heard Frederick 
Monod translate thus : 

' ' Hammer away, ye hostile bands : 
Your hammers break, God's anvil stands." 

Now, what does your boasted doctrine of the survival 
of the fittest say to this ? Come ! do not flinch, but 
carry it through. Is not the inference from your own 
principle irresistible — that by its survival the gospel 
has proved its fittestness ? — and may I not, therefore, 
repeat my challenge : " What is the chaff to the 
wheat?" 

But what is the inference from all this ? Can we 
express it better than in the words of the text : " He 
that hath my word, let him speak my word faith- 
fully " ? Let us first of all seek to possess it for our- 
selves, and then let us present it faithfully to our fellow- 
men. If we would see its power, we must preach it 
as we have received it from the Lord. It was to this 



36 



CHAFF OR WHEAT? 



same Jeremiah thai Jehovah said: "Preach the 
preaching that I bid thee ; diminish not a word " ; 
and the most successful evangelist the world ever 
saw was he who could say with truth, "I have not 
shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God." 
So let us imitate his example, and set forth before 
men the whole truth as we find it in this book. Let 
us expose the dreadful nature and evil consequences 
of sin ; let us publish the good news of salvation 
righteously wrought out by God, in love, for all who 
choose to accept of it ; let us show that such salvation 
is to be had alone through faith in the Lord Jesus 
Christ; let us exalt the life giving agency of the Holy 
Spirit, by whom alone men are quickened into newness 
of life — and let us enforce all these statements by the 
solemn sanctions of eternal judgment. Then we may 
expect to see God's arm made bare again, as in former 
days, in the conversion of multitudes ; and even if in 
that expectation we should for a time, like Jeremiah, 
be disappointed, we shall have at least the consola- 
tion that we have delivered our own souls and have 
sown seed which shall yet germinate in the hearts and 
lives of men. And now may God help us to lay these 
things to heart, that his name may be glorified. 
Amen. 

November 12, 1882, 



CHRIST BEFORE PILATE — PILATE 
BEFORE CHRIST. 



Matthew xxvii. 22. — Pilate saith unto them, What shall I do, 
then, with Jesus, which is called Christ? 

Dueing my late visit to my native land I had the 
great enjoyment of seeing, and somewhat carefully 
studying, Munkacsy's famous picture of " Christ Be- 
fore Pilate." Rarely, if ever, have I been so much 
moved by a work of art ; and I propose this morning 
to give to you, as nearly as I can recall it, the sermon 
which it preached to me as I sat and silently contem- 
plated the figures, which, even as I looked at them, 
seemed to grow before me into life. 

But, first, I must try to describe to you the picture 
itself. The canvas is large, and the figures, all of 
which are on the line of sight, are of life size. The 
scene is in the pavement or open court before the 
governor's palace, which was called in the Hebrew 
tongue Gabbatha, and in which, after all his efforts 
to wriggle out of the responsibility of dealing with 
the case, Pilate ultimately gave up Jesus to be cruci- 
fied. At one end of the court, on a raised bench, and 
dressed in a white toga, Pilate sits. On either side of 
him are Jews, each of whom has a marked and special 
individuality. The two on his left are gazing with 
intense eagerness at Christ. They are evidently puz- 
zled, and know not well what to make of the myste- 
rious prisoner. On his right, standing on one of the 
seats, and with his back against the wall, is a Scribe, 



38 CHRIST BEFORE PILATE — PILATE BEFORE CHRIST. 

whose countenance is expressive of uttermost con- 
tempt, and just in front of this haughty fellow are 
some Pharisees, one of whom is on his feet, and pas- 
sionately urging that Jesus should be put to death, pre- 
sumably on the ground that, if Pilate should let him 
go, he would make it evident that he was not Csesar's 
friend. Before them again is a usurer, sleek, fat and 
self-satisfied, clearly taking great comfort to himself 
in the assurance that, however the matter may be 
settled, his well-filled money-bags will be undisturbed. 
Beyond him stands the Christ in a robe of seamless 
white, and with his wrists firmly bound; while be- 
hind, kept in place by a Boman soldier, standing with 
his back to the spectator, and making a barricade 
with his spear, which he holds horizontally, is a mot- 
ley group of on-lookers, not unlike that which we may 
still see any day in one of our criminal courts. Of 
these, one more furious than the rest is wildly ges- 
ticulating, and crying, as we may judge from his whole 
attitude, " Crucify him ! crucify him ! " and another, a 
little to the Saviour's left, but in the second row be- 
hind him, is leaning forward with mockery in his 
leering look, and making almost as if he would spit 
upon the saintly one. There is but one really com- 
passionate face in the crowd, and that is the face of a 
woman who, with an infant in her arms, most fitly 
represents those gentle daughters of Jerusalem who 
followed Jesus to Calvary with tears. Then, over the 
heads of the on-lookers, and out of the upper part of 
the doorway into the court, we get a glimpse of the 
quiet light of the morning as it sleeps upon the walls 
and turrets of the adjacent buildings. All these fig- 
ures are so distinctly seen that you feel you could 
recognize them again if you met them anywhere ; and 
a strange sense of reality comes upon you as you look 



CHRIST BEFORE PILATE — PILATE BEFORE CHRIST. 39 

at them, so that you forget that they are only painted, 
and imagine that you are gazing on living and breath- 
ing men. 

But, as you sit awhile and look on, you gradually 
lose all consciousness of the presence of the mere 
on-lookers and find your interest concentrated on 
these two white-robed ones, as if they were the only 
figures before you. The pose of the Christ is admir- 
able. It is repose blended with dignity ; self-pos- 
session rising into majesty. There is no agitation or 
confusion ; no fear or misgiving ; but, instead, the calm 
nobleness of him who has just been saying " Thou 
couldst have no power at all against me, except it 
were given thee from above ; therefore he that de- 
livered me unto thee hath the greater sin." The face 
alone disappoints. Perhaps that may be owing to the 
lofty ideal we have of the Divine Man, so that no 
picture of our Lord would entirely please. But though 
the painter has wisely abandoned the halo, and all 
similar conventionalisms of art, and has delineated a 
real man, for ail which he is to be highly commended, 
yet the eyes which look so steadily at Pilate as if they 
were looking him through, seem to me to be cold, 
keen, and condemnatory, rather than compassionate 
and sad. It is a conception of the Lord of the same 
sort as that of Dore, in his well-known picture of the 
leaving of the Praetorium, and the eyes have not in 
them that deep well of tenderness out of which came 
the tears which he shed over Jerusalem, and which 
we expect to see in them when he is looking at the 
hopeless struggle of a soul which will not accept his 
aid. It is said that the artist, dissatisfied with his first 
attempt, has painted the Christ face twice ; but this, 
also, is a partial failure, and here, so at least it seemed 
to me as I looked upon it, is the one defect in his 



4:0 CHRIST BEFORE PILATE — PILATE BEFORE CHRIST. 

noble work. But if there is this defect, it is one which 
it shares with every other effort that human art has 
made to delineate the Lord. The Pilate, however, is 
well-nigh faultless. Here is a great, strong man, the 
representative of the mightiest empire the world has 
ever seen, with a head indicating intellectual force, 
and a face, especially in its lower part, suggestive of 
sensual indulgence. There is ordinarily no want of 
firmness in him, as we may see from the general set 
of his features ; but now there is in his countenance a 
marvelous mixture of humiliation and irresolution. 
He cannot lift his eyes to meet the gaze of Christ ; and 
while one of his hands is nervously clutching at his 
robe he is looking sadly into the other, whose fingers, 
even as we look at them, almost seem to twitch with 
perplexed irresolution. He is clearly pondering for 
himself the question which a few moments before he 
had addressed to the multitude, " "What shall I do with 
Jesus which is called Christ ? " He is annoyed that 
the case has been brought to him at all, and as he 
feels himself drifting on, against his own better judg- 
ment, toward yielding to the clamor of the multitude, 
he falls mightily in his own conceit, and begins to 
despise himself. He would, at that moment, give, oh, 
how much ! to be rid of the responsibility of dealing 
with the Christ, but he cannot evade it ; and so he sits 
there, drifting on to what he knows is a wrong de- 
cision, the very incarnation of the feeling which his 
own national poet described when he said, " I see and 
approve the better course ; I follow the worse. 53 
Thus, as we look at these two, we begin to discover 
that it was not Christ that was before Pilate so much 
as Pilate that was before Christ. His was the testing 
experience. His was the trial ; his too, alas ! was the 
degradation; and at that coming day when the places 



CHRIST BEFORE PILATE — PILATE BEFORE CHRIST. 41 

shall be reversed, when Christ shall be on the judgment 
seat, and Pilate at the bar, there will still be that deep 
self-condemnation which the painter here has fixed 
upon his countenance. It is a marvelous picture, in 
many respects the most remarkable I ever looked 
upon, and, even from this imperfect description of it, 
you will easily understand how as I sat intent before 
it it stirred my soul to the very depths. 

But now, with this portrayal of the scene before us 
let us see if we can account, first, for the hesitation of 
Pilate to give up the Lord, and then for his final 
yielding to the clamor of the people. "Why all this 
reluctance on his part to send Jesus to the cross ? He 
was not usually so scrupulous. A human life more 
or less gave him generally very little concern. He 
had all a Roman's indifference for the comfort of those 
who stood in any respect in his way ; and had no com- 
punction, as we know, in mingling the blood of certain 
turbulent Jews with the very sacrifices which at the mo- 
ment they were offering. Had Christ been a Roman 
citizen, indeed, he would most likely have been very 
watchful over his safety, for in regard to all such the 
imperial law was peculiarly strict, but the life of a mere 
Jew was a very small thing in his estimation. "Where- 
fore then, this unwonted squeamishness of conscience ? 
It was the result of a combination of particulars, each 
of which had a special force of its own, and the aggre- 
gate of which so wrought upon his mind that he was 
brought thereby to a stand. 

There was, in the first place, the peculiar char- 
acter of the prisoner. A very slight examination 
had been sufficient to convince him that Christ 
was innocent of the charge which had been brought 
against him. But in the course of that examina- 



42 CHRIST BEFORE PILATE — PILATE BEFORE CHRIST. 

tion much more than the innocence of Christ had 
come to view. He had manifested a dignified pa- 
tience altogether unlike anything that Pilate had ever 
seen ; and his answers to certain questions had been 
so strangely suggestive of something higher and nobler 
than even the most exalted earthly philosophy that 
he could not look upon him as a common prisoner. 
He was no mere fanatic; neither was he after the 
pattern of any existing school, whether Jewish, Greek, 
or Eoman. There was about him an " other- world- 
liness" which brought those near him infco close 
proximity, for the time, with the unseen ; and an 
elevation which lifted him above the tumult that was 
howling for his destruction. Probably Pilate could 
not have described it to himself, but there was some- 
thing which he felt unusual and exceptional in this 
man, marking him out from every other he ever had 
before him, and constraining him to take a special 
interest in his case. Add to this that his wife had 
sent to him that singular message — " Have thou 
nothing to do with that just man, for I have suffered 
many things this day in a dream because of him," — a 
message which, in those days of mingled scepticism 
and superstition — for the two always go hand in hand — 
must have produced a deep impression on his mind. 
Moreover, there seemed some fatality about the case. 
He had tried to roll it over upon Herod, but that 
wily monarch sent the prisoner back upon his hands. 
He had attempted to release him, as the passover 
prisoner for the year, but neither was there any outlet 
for him in that, for the people had preferred Barab- 
bas. And so the responsibility had come again to his 
own door, and could not be passed on to another. 
Still again, he saw that the Jews were acting most 
hypocritically in the matter. It was a new thing for 



CHBIST BEFOEE PILATE — PILATE BEFORE CHBIST. 43 

them to be zealous for the honor of Caesar, and he 
could easily see through the mask they wore, into the 
envy and malice which were the motives for their 
conduct. The deeper he went into the case he dis- 
covered only the more reason for resisting their 
importunity, and, however he looked at it, his plain 
duty was to set the prisoner free. 

Why then, again we ask, was his perplexity ? The 
answer is suggested by the taunt of the Jews, " If thou 
let this man go thou art not Caesar's friend ; whoso- 
ever maketh himself a king speaketh against Caesar." 
He foresaw that if he resisted the will of the rulers 
he would make them his enemies, and so provoke 
them to complain of him to the emperor, who would 
then institute an inquiry into his administration 
of his office — and that he was not prepared to face. 
He had done things as a governor which would 
not bear the light, and so at the crisis of his life he 
was fettered by deeds of the past from doing that 
which he felt to be the duty of the present. You may, 
perhaps, remember that expression of the prophet, 
which thus reads in the margin : " Their doings will 
not suffer them to turn unto their God";* and that 
other, which affirms, concerning Israel : " Their own 
doings have beset them about."t Now, these descrip- 
tions most accurately define the cause of Pilate's per- 
plexity here. His conduct in the past had been such 
that he had not the courage to take any course which 
might lead to an investigation of that. If he could 
deliver Christ without provoking that, then he would 
most cheerfully do so ; but if by delivering Christ he 
would provoke that, then Christ must be given up to 
the cross. Hence his perplexity at the first, and 



* Hosea v. 4. 



f Ibid, vii. 2. 



44 CHRIST BEFORE PILATE — PILATE BEFORE CHRIST. 

hence, also, his yielding in the end. His past mis- 
deeds had put him virtually into the power of those 
~ who were now so eager for the condemnation of the 
Christ. On three several occasions his arbitrariness 
had been such as all but to instigate a rebellion 
among the people, and his cruelty and contempt for 
justice, when he had a personal end to gain, were sure, 
upon appeal to the emperor, to be severely punished ; 
so to save himself from banishment and disgrace, if 
not even death, he delivered over Jesus to the will of 
the Jews. He wished to do right in this case more 
than ever he had wished before ; there was something 
about it which in bis view made it more important 
that he should do right now than ever before ; but 
through all his past official life he had, by his 
enormities and oppressions, been unconsciously weav- 
ing round himself a net, in the meshes of which he is 
now inextricably caught. His guilty conscience made 
him a coward at the very time when most of all he 
wanted to be brave. lie had come to his " narrow 
place," where he could turn neither to the right hand 
nor to the left, but must face the naked alternative 
" yes " or " no " ; and he fell because in his former 
life, when he was thinking of no such ordeal, he had 
sold himself by his evil deeds into the power of the 
enemy. 

Now, what a lesson there is in all this for us ! Men 
think that they may live for the time being as they 
please, and that at a convenient season they can re- 
pent and turn to God. But the present is condition- 
ing the future, and making it either possible or the 
reverse for us to do right in the future. He who neg- 
lects the laws of health every day, and lives in intem- 
perance and excess of all kinds, is only making it abso- 
lutely certain that when fever lays him low he will 



CHRIST BEFORE PILATE — PILATE BEFORE CHRIST. 45 

die, for lie has eaten out the strength of his constitu- 
tion by his follies. And, in the same way, he who sets 
all morality at defiance in his ordinary conduct only 
makes it inevitable that when his convenient season 
does come, when his time of privilege and testing does 
arrive, he will fail to rise to the occasion, and be swept 
away into perdition. The tenor of our ordinary life 
determines how we shall pass through exceptional 
and crucial occasions, therefore let us bring that up 
to the highest level by doing everything as unto God, 
and then we shall be ready for any emergency. 

Nor let me forget to add here, that in spite of all 
his efforts to keep back investigation, Pilate's day of 
reckoning with the emperor did come. The Jews 
complained of him after all, in spite of his yielding 
to them now ; and as the result he was banished, and 
afterwards, so tradition says, he committed suicide. 
Thus the ordeal and the disgrace came, notwithstand- 
ing ail he did to avert them, and he had not under 
them the solace which he might have enjoyed if only 
he had stood firm on this great and memorable occa- 
sion. Therefore let us all, and especially the young, 
take to ourselves, as the first lesson from this deeply 
interesting history, that we should be careful not to 
hamper ourselves for the discharge of duty in the 
future by the guilt of the present. By our conduct 
now we are either coiling cords around us which shall 
hold us fast at the very time when we most desire to 
be free, or we are forming and fostering a strength 
of character which, through God, will triumph over 
every temptation. If " to be weak is to be miserable," 
it is no less true that to be guilty is to be weak. Pre- 
serve yourselves, therefore, from this danger, and seek 
above all other things to keep your consciences clean ; 
then when you need all your strength for a crisis, you 



46 CHRIST BEFORE PILATE — PILATE BEFORE CHRIST. 

will not sit, like Pilate here, in nervous perplexity, be- 
moaning your helplessness even while you yield to the 
adversary ; but you will shake the temptation from 
you with as much ease as the eagle shakes the dew- 
drop from his wing. Keep yourselves pure : so shall 
your youth be full of happiness, and you shall go 
forth out of it with no encumbering past to clog the 
wheels of your endeavor. How happy he whose youth 
time thus leaves him with a smile and sends him 
forth upon the duties of manhood with a benediction ! 
But he, how miserable ! whose early years heap bitter 
maledictions on his head, and push him forward into 
active life with a conscience already laden with guilt, 
and a soul as weak before temptation as a reed is be- 
fore the wind. 

But while there is thus in this history a lesson for 
all time, I think Munkacsy, by the appearance of his 
wondrous picture now, has made it evident that there 
is also something in it specially adapted to these 
modern days. It is with artists in the choice of their 
subjects as it is with ministers in the selection of 
their themes. Both alike, consciously and uncon- 
sciously, and most frequently perhaps, unconsciously, 
are affected by the spirit of their age. The atmos- 
phere — literary, moral, political, and religious — which 
is round about them, and which they are daily breath- 
ing, does, insensibly to themselves, so influence them 
that their thoughts are turned by it into a channel 
different from that in which those of a former gen- 
eration flowed. Hence, whether the painter would 
admit it or not, I see in this picture, at this juncture, 
at once a mirror of the times and a lesson for them. 
The question of Pilate, " What shall I do, then, with 
Jesus which is called the Christ ? " is pre-eminently 



CHEIST BEFOBE PILATE — PILATE BEFOBE CHBIST. 47 

the question of the present age. No doubt we may 
say with, truth that it has been the question of all the 
Christian centuries, and each one of them has faced it 
and solved it after its own fashion. It has tested the 
centuries even as it tested Pilate, and those in which 
Christ was rejected have been the darkest in the 
world's history ; while those in which he has been 
hailed as the Incarnate God have been the brightest 
which the earth has ever seen, because irradiated 
with truth, and justice, and benevolence and purity. 
But though we are always prone to exaggerate that 
in the midst of which we are ourselves, it seems to me 
that in no one age since that of the primitive church 
has this testing question been so prominent as in our 
own. All the controversies of our times, social, philo- 
sophical, and theological, lead up to and find their 
ultimate hinge in the answer to this inquiry, " "Who 
is this Jesus Christ ? " If he be a mere man, then 
there is for us nothing but uncertainty on any subject, 
outside of the domain of the exact sciences ; and we 
must all become agnostics, holding this one negative 
article of belief, that nothing can be known about 
anything save that of which we can take cognizance 
with the bodily senses. But if he be Incarnate God, 
then he brings with him from heaven the final word on 
all subjects concerning which he has spoken ; and 
though in his person he is the mystery of mysteries, 
yet, once received, he becomes forthwith the solution 
of all mysteries, and faith in him is at once the satis- 
faction of the intellect and the repose of the heart. It is 
perfectly natural, therefore, that all the controversies 
of the day should turn on him. The Lives of Christ 
which have been written during the last thirty or forty 
years would make in themselves a very respectable 
library ; and the cry even of the sceptic is, " I could get 



4S C HEIST BEFORE PILATE — PILATE BEFORE CHRIST. 



on very well with unbelief, if I only knew what to make 
of Christ." Yes, that is just the difficulty. Christ is here 
in the Scriptures a character portrayed in literature ; 
he was in the world for thirty-three years, and lived a 
life exceptional in every respect, but most of all in the 
moral and spiritual departments, so that of him alone 
perfection can be predicated ; he has been ever since 
a most potent factor in history, for through his influ- 
ence ail that is pure, and noble, and exalted, and lovely 
and of good report, has come into our civilization. 
Xow, these things have to be accounted for. If he 
was only a man, how shall we explain them ? and if 
he was more than a man shall we not take his own 
testimonv as to his di^nitv and mission ? If we are 
to be unbelievers, we must account for Christ on 
natural principles : but if we cannot do that, then 
we must receive him as he claims to be received. 
There is no alternative. Those in the age who have 
the spirit and disposition of Pilate will anew reject 
him ; but those who are sincere and earnest in their 
inquiries will come ultimately out into the light, for 
" if any man be willing to do his will, he shall know 
of the doctrine whether it be of God." 

And what is true of the age, as a whole, is true 
also of every individual to whom the gospel is pro- 
claimed. For each of us, my hearers, this is the 
question of questions, " What shall I do with Jesus 
which is called Christ ? " Shall I reject him and live 
precisely as if I had never heard his name ? or shall 
I accept him as the Lord from heaven in human 
nature, trust in him as my Saviour, and obey him as 
my king ! I must do the one or the other ; and yet 
how many are seeking, like Pilate, to evade the ques- 
tion ? They try to escape the responsibility of deal' 



CHRIST BEFORE PILATE — PILATE BEFORE CHRIST. 49 

ing with it as a direct alternative of yes or no. But 
as one has well said, " necessity is laid upon us. The 
adversaries of Christ press upon us to give our ver- 
dict against him. We are troubled and perplexed, 
for we have long heard about him, and have had each 
of us his own convictions. We would still remain neu- 
tral. We try — and try in vain — to escape from the 
spirit, the conversation, the literature, the question of 
the times. Again and again we wash our hands. But 
neither our silence nor our actions are of any avail ; 
and so we are found sitting, conscious of the presence 
and the claims of our Saviour, and, like Pilate, not 
daring to look at him, as we puzzle over the answer 
which we must give to the question that is being 
forced upon us — Who is this Jesus Christ ? " Per- 
haps this description accurately portrays some one 
here this morning. If so, let me give him one part- 
ing word. It is this : You cannot evade the decision, 

BUT BE SURE THAT YOU LOOK AT THE CHRIST BEFORE YOU 

give him up. Nothing is so remarkable in the pict- 
ure to which I have so often this day referred as the 
evident persistency with which Pilate keeps his eyes 
from Christ ; and few things are so saddening as to 
meet with men who profess to have, and really have, 
difficulties about Christ, but who have never read the 
gospels or the New Testament with any attention. 
Let me urge you, therefore, to study these gospels and 
epistles before you give your voice against the Lord, 
and I am very sure that if you ponder them thoroughly 
you will soon accept him. Give over trying to solve 
all the difficulties and so-called discrepancies in the 
Scriptures which form the stock-in-trade of the infidel 
lecturer — all these are but as dust which he raises 
that he may blind your eyes to the really important 
question, " Who is Christ ?" Settle that, and if you 
3 



50 CHRIST BEFORE PILATE — PILATE BEFORE CHRIST. 

do, all other difficulties will vanish. Turn your face 
to the light, and the shadow will fall behind you. 
Look at the Christ before you give him up. And 
remember, if you do reject Christ, you have still 
to account for him. It is unreasonable for you, if 
you believe only in the natural and material, to leave 
such a phenomenon as Christ unexplained. Yes, and I 
must add, if you reject him you must yet account to 
him. Go, then, and ponder this text ; yea, may it 
continue sounding in your inmost heart until you have 
determined to receive and rest upon him as your 
only Saviour, and say to him, like Thomas, " My 
Lord and my God." 

October 15, 1882. 



CAPTIVITIES AND HOW TO IMPROVE 
THEM. 

Jeremiah xxix. 10-14. — For thus saith the Lord, That after sev- 
enty years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you, and perform 
my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place. 
For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, 
thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. 
Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I 
will hearken unto you. And ye shall seek me and find me, when ye 
shall search for me with all your heart. And I will be found of you, 
saith the Lord : and I will turn away your captivity, and 1 will 
gather you from all the nations, and from all the places whither I 
have driven you, saith the Lord; and I will bring you again into the 
place whence I caused you to be carried away captive. 

When God sends his people on a pilgrimage, he 
gives them a staff to support them by the way. So, 
after ten thousand captives had been taken by Neb- 
uchadnezzar from Jerusalem to Babylon, he caused 
his servant Jeremiah to write them the letter which 
is contained in this chapter, and in which he cheers 
them with the prospect of ultimate deliverance. They 
had been very unmindful of his covenant, and most 
disrespectful to his prophet, yet he had not forgot- 
ten them, and through the instrumentality of the 
messenger whom they had formerly despised he sends 
them the strongest consolation. Now, in all this we 
discover certain similarities to our own experience, 
and I am sure that you will not accuse me of any 
unwarrantable accommodation of the passage which I 
have just read, if I seek to bring out of it some great 



52 CAPTIVITIES AND HOW TO IMPEOVE THEM. 

truths which hold in all circumstances, and which are 
profitable both for warning and for comfort. 

I. To begin with, then, we may describe every real 
affliction which comes upon the Christian as a cap- 
tivity. "We have now, indeed, no such deportations 
as those made by Eastern warriors when they carried 
the populations of conquered countries away from 
their homes to foreign lands. They designed thereby 
to break up the sentiment of nationality among the 
captives themselves, and to remove from the newly 
acquired provinces all incitement to insurrection ; 
while, at the same time, they strengthened the centers 
of their empires by the addition of skilled artisans, 
scholars and agriculturists. Those who were thus 
removed from their native homes were for the most 
part generously treated. They were regarded as col- 
onists rather than as slaves ; nevertheless, they were 
taken whither they did not desire to go, and they 
were prevented from going to the land after which 
their hearts were longing. It is not wrong, therefore, 
to speak of them as captives. They were led through 
experiences into which they would never have gone of 
their own accord, and they were held back from the 
pleasures and occupations to which they would will- 
ingly have returned. That was the essence of their 
captivity. But is it not also the essence of every sort 
of affliction? To be in a condition which we never 
should have voluntarily preferred, or to be held back, 
by the power of something which we cannot control, 
from that which we eagerly desire to do, — is not that 
the very thing in an experience which makes it a 
trial? Take bodily illness, for example, and when 
you get at the root of the discomfort of it, you find it 
in the union of these two things : you are where you 



CAPTIVITIES AND HOW TO IMPROVE THEM. 



53 



do not want to be, and where you would never have 
thought of putting yourself, and you are held there, 
whether you will or not, by the irresistible might of 
your own weakness. No external force has been ex- 
erted upon you ; no sentinel keeps visible guard at 
your chamber door to prevent your exit, yet you are 
a prisoner as really as if you were encelled in the 
Tombs. You do not relish the situation. There is 
nothing in it, in itself considered, to attract you to it 
You would not have been in it if you could have 
helped it ; and now that you are in it you cannot go 
about your ordinary duties. Your business has to do 
without you. The appointments you have made have 
to go unkept. The transactions you expected to com- 
plete have to be let alone. You are a captive. 

But the same thing comes out in every sort of 
affliction. You are, let me suppose, in business per- 
plexities. Well, that is not of your own choosing. If 
you could have accomplished it, you would have been 
in quite different circumstances. But, in spite of you, 
things have gone crooked. Men whom you had im- 
plicitly trusted, and whom you would have had no 
more thought of doubting than you have thought now 
of doubting your mother's love to you, have proved 
deceitful. Or, perhaps, the partner whom in days 
gone by you had been the means of enriching has 
turned against you, and is seeking to worry you into 
the sacrifice of that which you know is really yours. 
And so you are at a standstill. You have been car- 
ried from the Jerusalem of comfort to the Babylon of 
perplexity, by no effort of yours, nay, perhaps, against 
the utmost resistance on your parfc, and now you can 
do nothing. Your resources are locked up, if they be 
not lost, and when your sympathies are moved for 
some suffering fellow-man, or for some deserving 



54 



CAPTIVITIES AND HOW TO IMPEOVE THEM. 



cause, or for some Christian enterprise, you feel that 
you cannot give as you did formerly, or it may be 
that you cannot give at all, — that is, you are a captive. 

So sometimes, also, our providential duties are a 
kind of affliction to us. We had no choice in deter- 
mining whether we would assume them. They came 
to us, unbidden, at least, if not undesired, and they 
have chained us to themselves, so that when we are 
asked to take part in some effort for the benefit of 
others we are compelled to say " No." We would a 
great deal rather have said "Yes" : it is a trial to us 
to refuse ; but we are hemmed in by prior and press- 
ing obligations, and we cannot do otherwise. Which 
of us knows not an experience like that ? The chain 
that binds us may be one that has come to us clearly in 
the way of Providence. Yet for the moment we would 
that we were free. Our very most sacred responsi- 
bilities — God help us! what weak creatures we are! 
— are sometimes felt by us as fetters which hold us 
back from enterprises of great pith and moment. 
Thus this old captivity, which marked an era in the 
history of God's ancient people, and which forms the 
theme of so many plaintive psalms, repeats itself, in 
some degree, in the life of every believer, and our 
modern trials furnish us with a key wherewith we 
may unlock for ourselves the prophetic casket in 
which such treasures of consolation are laid up. 

II. For now I proceed to remark that every captiv- 
ity of which the Christian is the victim will have an 
end. Jeremiah here declares that after a set time of 
seventy years the enforced absence of the people from 
their own land would cease. And the student of 
ancient history knows that this all came to pass. At 
the date at which the prophet wrote, indeed, there 



CAPTIVITIES AND HOW TO IMPBOVE THEM. 55 

was, to human view, but little likelihood that such 
a change would come. Nebuchadnezzar was in his 
glory. The Babylonian empire was at the zenith of 
its splendor, and it did not seem probable that it 
would be speedily overthrown. Yet, in a wonderful 
way, Cyrus, who had been called the servant and the 
shepherd of the Lord by Isaiah, obtained possession 
of the dominions of Belshazzar, and the very first year 
of his Babylonian reign was signalized by the issue of 
that famous decree which gave the Jews permission 
to return to their own country, and encouraged them 
to rebuild the temple of their God. Now, in a similar 
way, we may be sure that sooner or later our provi- 
dential captivities will come to an end. " Time and 
the hour run through the roughest day." "Be the 
day weary, or be the day long, at last it ringeth to 
even-song." It is but a little while, at the longest, 
and we shall be where " sorrow and sighing shall for- 
ever flee away." This state of limitation, this con- 
flict between our aspirations and our abilities, is not 
to last forever. We may hope that it will come to an 
end even here upon the earth, but we may be sure 
that it will not continue beyond the grave. And 
there is much even in that thought to give us comfort. 
" The things concerning us have an end." Not for- 
ever shall we be in bondage to the weakness of the 
body, hampered by its liability to disease, and hin- 
dered by its proneness to fatigue. Not always shall 
we be at the mercy of the unscrupulous and dishon- 
est. Not continually shall we be held down by the 
encumbrances that overweight us here on earth. For 
in the fatherland above we shall work without weari- 
ness, and serve God without imperfection. So in the 
prospect of that home we may well be reconciled for a 
season to the discomforts of our present exile. 



56 CAPTIVITIES AND HOW TO IMPEOVE THEM. 

But, while there is much in this view of the case to 
sustain us, we must not lose sight of the moral end 
which God has in view in sending us into our cap- 
tivity. Mark these words of the Lord, " I know the 
thoughts that I think toward you, thoughts of peace 
and not of evil, to give you an expected end." He 
sees the result from the beginning, even as at the first 
the eye of the artist beholds the finished statue in the 
rough block of marble that has just come to him from 
the quarry ; and all the afflictions which he sends are 
but like the hammer-strokes of the sculptor, each of 
which removes some imperfection or brings some new 
loveliness to view. Observe how it was with the 
Israelites in the case before us. During all the years 
of their history, from the very exodus on to the cap- 
tivity, their besetment was idolatry. Ever and anon 
they were falling into the worship of some of their 
neighbors' gods ; sometimes they followed Baal, and 
sometimes, as in the days of Ahaz, altars were erected 
on the very roof of the Temple, apparently for the 
worship of the heavenly bodies. But from the time 
of their removal to Babylon all that disappeared. 
Their captivity gave the death-blow to their idolatry, 
and thenceforth they worshiped only God. More- 
over, their absence from Jerusalem, and the cessation 
of their Temple ritual, threw them back on God him- 
self, and from this date prayer assumed an importance 
among them that it had not before possessed. Cut off 
from access to the house of God, they sought God him- 
self the more earnestly, and found, in very deed, that he 
was not confined to temples made with hands. Now, 
also, the written word began to be studied by them, 
and synagogues for its weekly public reading were in- 
stituted among them. Thus they increased in spirit- 
uality of character ; they learned to walk more by 



CAPTIVITIES AND HOW TO IMPEOYE THEM. 



57 



faith and less by sight ; and the forms of their relig- 
ion, instead of being ends in themselves, became to 
them only the means of ministering to their fellowship 
with Jehovah. 

Now, is it not precisely in these ways yet that God, 
through affliction, works out the sanctification of our 
souls ? Ah ! how many of our idolatries he has re- 
buked and rectified by our captivities ! We had been 
worshiping our reputation, and lo ! an illness came 
which laid us aside, and our names were by and by for- 
gotten, as new men came to the front ; and then, learn- 
ing the folly of our false ambition, we turned from the 
idolatry of self to the homage of Jehovah. Or, we 
had made an idol of our business. We had great 
ideas of what we should make of it, and we thought 
of leaving it as a legacy to our children, and perpet- 
uating our name in connection with it ; but now it is 
in ruins, and as we see the perishableness of earthly 
things, we turn to Him who is unchanging and eter- 
nal. Or, we had made a god of our dwelling, and by 
some reverse of fortune it is swept away from us, just 
that we might learn the meaning of that old song of 
Moses, " Lord, thou hast been our dwelling-place in 
all generations." 

How many portions of his word, also, have been 
explained to us by our trials ! There is no com- 
mentator of the Scriptures half so valuable as a cap- 
tivity. It unfolds new beauties where all had ap- 
peared to be beautiful before ; and where formerly 
there was what we thought a wilderness, it has re- 
vealed to us a fruitful field. The old psalms have 
quavered for us with a new pathos as we sat by our 
" Babel's stream," and have sounded for us with a 
new joy as we found our captivity turned as the 
streams in the South. The man who has seen much 
3* 



58 CAPTIVITIES AND HOW TO IMPEOVE THEM. 

affliction will not readily part with his copy of the 
word of God. Another book may seem to others to 
be identical with his own ; but it is not the same to 
him, for oyer his old and tear-stained Bible he has 
written, in characters which are visible to no eyes but 
his own, the record of his experiences, and ever and 
anon he comes on Bethel pillars or Elim palms, which 
are to him the memorials of some critical chapter 
in his history. How many of us, too, might say with 
truth that we had never really prayed until God sent 
us into captivity ! Our worship had been outward, 
formal, cold ; a thing of duty, not of sincerity ; an 
affair, shall I say, of luxury rather than of need? But 
now we have found out what the mercy-seat means, 
and know that prayer is the surest and the sweetest 
solace in the hour of perplexity. This is God's " end 
and expectation" in our captivity; and when that is 
realized is there one among us who would affirm that 
the result is not worth the price ? By such experi- 
ences it is that Christians are made ; and if we would 
be great in holiness, we must lay our account with the 
discipline through which alone that greatness can be 
given. Nor must we imagine that God is changed 
toward us while thus he is dealing with us. In all 
and through all he is working for our good, that at 
the last he may present us to himself without spot 
or wrinkle or any such thing ; and whensoever we are 
apt to suspect him he falls back upon his own con- 
scious love to us and says, " I know the thoughts that 
I think toward you, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, 
to give you an expected end." 

III. But now we must not forget to add, in the 
third place, that if we would have such results from 
our captivity, there are certain important things 



CAPTIVITIES AND HOW TO IMPROVE THEM. 



59 



which we must cultivate. What these are will appear 
if we look narrowly at the verses which form my text, 
and at those by which they are immediately pre- 
ceded : 

I mention first among them a willing acceptance 
of God's discipline, and patient submission to it. It 
would seem that before the date of Jeremiah's letter 
there were among the captives certain persons claim- 
ing to be prophets or diviners who were seeking to 
incite them to revolt against their conqueror, and 
promising that thereby they would have a speedy 
return to Jerusalem ; but Jeremiah endeavored to 
impress upon them that the shortest way to their 
deliverance lay through a contented accommodation of 
themselves to their new circumstances, and a patient 
endurance of their trials. So he says to them, Make 
the best of your position — " Build ye houses and dwell 
in them ; and plant gardens and eat the fruit of them " ; 
and, so far from hatching schemes of rebellion, " Seek 
the peace of the city whither I have caused you to be 
carried away captives and pray unto the Lord for 
it ; for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace." 

Now, in the same way, if we are to receive benefit 
from our captivity we must accept the situation and 
turn it to the best possible account. Fretting over 
that from which we have been removed, or which 
lias been taken away from us, will not make things 
better, but it will prevent us from improving those 
which remain. The bond is only tightened by our 
stretching it to the uttermost. The impatient horse 
which will not quietly endure his halter only strangles 
himself in his stall. The high-mettled animal that is 
restive in the yoke only galls his shoulders ; and every 
one will understand the difference between the rest- 
less starling of which Sterne has written, breaking its 



60 CAPTIVITIES AND HOW TO IMPROVE THEM. 

wings against the bars of its cage, and crying, "I can't 
get out," "I can't get out," and the docile canary that 
sits upon its perch and sings as if he would outrival 
the lark soaring to heaven's gate, and so moves his 
mistress to open the door of his prison-house and give 
him the full range of the room. He who is constantly 
looking back and bewailing that which he has lost, 
does only thereby unlit himself for improving in any 
way the discipline to which God has subjected him ; 
whereas the man who brings his mind down to his 
lower lot, and deliberately examines how he can serve 
God best in that, is already on the way to happiness 
and to restoration. This is a most important con- 
sideration, and it may, perhaps, help to explain why 
similar trials have had such different results in 
different persons. One has been bemoaning that it 
was not with him as in months past ; while the other 
has been discovering that some talents have been left 
him still, and has been laying these out for his Lord. 
One has been saying, "If I had only the resources 
which I once possessed I could have done something, 
but, alas ! they have gone " ; the other has been solilo- 
quizing thus : "I can at least do this, and if I put it 
into the hand of Christ, little as it is, he can make it 
great " ; and so we account for the misery and useless- 
ness of the one, and the happiness and usefulness of the 
other. Nor v/ill it do to say that this difference 
is only a thing of temperament. It is a thing of faith. 
The one recognizes the hand of God as a loving father 
in his affliction ; the other sees nothing but his own 
calamity, and that only increases his affliction in the 
end. 

Thus, paradoxical as it may appear, acquiescence 
in adversity is the best way out of it ; for he who 
accepts the situation and begins on the lower level 



CAPTIVITIES AND HOW TO IMPROVE THEM. 61 

to do his best has already stepped on the first round 
in the ladder up which he is to ascend to a renewal 
of prosperity. This is true, as every one will admit, 
in temporal things, but it is no less true in spiritual 
matters, for not until we have forgiven God for the 
wrong which we imagine he has done us, or rather 
not until we have come to see that there was no 
wrong in his discipline, can we receive the full meas- 
ure of the blessing which he desires to bestow upon us. 

But the second thing to be cultivated by us, if we 
would secure the full benefit of the trial, is unswerv- 
ing confidence in God. If we doubt him we at once 
become the prey to despondency, impatience, and re- 
bellion. We are ready then to take counsel of false 
prophets and diviners, and to open our hearts to 
every kind of evil. But so long as we hold fast our 
faith in him, everything that comes upon us will in 
the end only minister to our spiritual growth. " He 
that believeth shall not make haste ; " and the man 
who has the fullest persuasion that the providence 
of God is universal, including everything in his lot, 
while at the same time it is directed to a special end, 
namely, the greatest good of those who truly love 
him, will " hold still," no matter what may come upon 
him. Thus this unfaltering trust in God is intimately 
connected with the willing acceptance of our captivity, 
to which I have just alluded, and so it comes to be 
closely allied also with that progress in holiness 
which it is the great design of our afflictions to pro- 
mote. And why should we not trust God ? He has 
given us his word, and that ought to be enough ; but, 
as if in accommodation to our weakness, he has 
confirmed that promise by his oath, and has at the 
same time opened up a way, through the cross of his 
own Son, by which he may righteously keep his 



62 CAPTIVITIES AND HOW TO IMPKOVE THEM. 

pledge. So we have no ground for suspecting him , 
and if we do distrust him, we can have no better re- 
assurance of his faithfulness than that which this 
verse affords : " I know the thoughts that I think 
toward you, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to 
give you an expected end." Brethren, ponder well 
these words. They are unique even in the sacred 
Scriptures, and they have a comforting influence such 
as few other passages possess. Years ago they came 
to my own heart with peculiar power, and the Bible 
now would scarcely be the same book to me if I could 
not find them in it, and fall back upon the assurance 
they give. They are almost like a soliloquy of Je- 
hovah, in which he comforts himself, under the sus- 
picions and accusations of his wavering people, by 
the consciousness of his own loving purposes. As if 
he had said, "You may think of me as you please ; 
you may utter hard things against me, and accuse me 
of having a controversy with you ; but no matter. I 
know all that is false, I know the thoughts that I 
think toward you, and whatever you may allege to the 
contrary, they are thoughts of peace and nob of evil, 
to give you an expected end." Now, may it not be 
with, some of us that we have failed to receive the 
full benefit of trial just because we have been mis- 
judging God ? Confidence in your physician is itself 
more than half the cure, and trust in God is abso- 
lutely essential if we would gain benefit from his dis- 
cipline. Yet because a change in men's conduct toward 
us is usually the indication of a difference in their dis- 
position toward us, we think that God has ceased to 
care for us when he puts us into trial or sends us into 
captivity. But it is not so. To-day the medical man 
gives his patient liberty to take anything he chooses ; 
to-morrow he cuts off all indulgence, and uses severe 



CAPTIVITIES AND HOW TO IMPROVE THEM. 



63 



and painful remedies ; but does lie care the less for 
him because he thus changes his treatment, or has his 
purpose regarding him undergone an alteration ? Not 
at all. In both cases he is equally earnest to have 
his health restored. And it is quite similar with God 
in his dealings with his people. He is not an 
amiably indulgent father, giving his children what- 
ever they ask just because they desire it ; but he is 
a wise and judicious educator, who gives or denies 
according as he sees it will promote the training of 
his pupils for the higher life of heaven. So let us 
trust him, and beneath every other sentiment of our 
souls let there be that of humble submission to his 
will, not because it is inevitable, but because it is for 
our good. 

The last thing needed by us if we would derive the 
full benefit from our captivity is fervent prayer. Hear 
these words, " Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall 
go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you, 
and ye shall seek me and find me, when ye shall search 
for me with all your heart." Now, as I have already 
said, this was all fulfilled in the case of the captive 
Jews. They did seek God with all their hearts, and 
they did enjoy the blessing promised them by the 
mouth of Ezekiel, in that chapter of his book that 
is such a wonderful anticipation of the Gospel. It is 
noteworthy, also, that out of the songs in the Psalter 
which are not the production of David, a large pro- 
portion belongs to the age of the captivity. The peo- 
ple thus did turn to God, and he teas found of them 
because they sought him with the greatest earnest- 
ness. So let us make our captivities, whatever they 
may be, the occasions of new prayers. Let us take 
them to God, not in a formal and superficial manner, 
but really and sincerely, emptying our hearts before 



64 



CAPTIVITIES AND HOW TO IMPROVE THEM. 



him, and pleading his promises even as Daniel took 
Jeremiah's prophecy which we have to-day been con- 
sidering : and who can tell but he will give us not only 
the relief we seek, but also such revelations of his 
grace and goodness as shall correspond to the vision 
of the seventy heptades with which the Babylonian 
prime minister was blessed ? No calamity can be to 
us an unmixed evil if we carry it in direct and fervent 
prayer to God, for even as one in taking shelter from 
the rain beneath a tree may find on its branches fruit 
which he looked not for, so we, in fleeing for refuge 
beneath the shadow of God's wing, will always find 
more in God than we had seen or known before. It 
is thus through our afilictions that God gives us fresh 
revelations of himself ; and the Jabbok ford, which 
we crossed to seek his help, leads to the Peniel, 
where, as the result of our wrestling, we "see God 
face to face," and our lives are preserved. 

I cannot but feel that these truths are designed for 
some one here to-day. I came from the country with 
quite another sermon for this morning's service. But 
after I reached my home this discourse came to me, 
and would write itself, whether I would or not. So I 
know it is meant for some one, though I know not who 
he is. I draw the bow at a venture, but as I do so the 
hands of the Master, unseen, are over mine, and the 
arrow, which to-day is one of deliverance and not of 
destruction, will surely find its mark. Take it to thy- 
self, O captive, and he will give thee " songs for sigh- 
ing," and turn for thee " the shadow of death into 
the morning." 

June 9, 1878 



PERSONAL INDEPENDENCE THE RE- 
SULT OF DIVINE REDEMPTION. 



1 Cor. vii. 23. — Ye are bought with a price ; be not ye the servants 

of men. 

The first Gentile converts to Christianity had to 
confront many perplexing problems arising out of 
their relationship to those who remained heathens, 
and their daily contact, in one way or another, with 
the institutions of paganism and the enactments of 
imperialism. It is not wonderful, therefore, that in 
their difficulty as to what they should do in certain 
matters, the members of the church of Corinth had 
applied for advice to the Apostle Paul ; and the coun- 
sels which he gave to them were, as indeed might 
have been expected, pre-eminently wise. One of the 
things concerning which they had specially desired his 
guidance was marriage, and the chapter from which 
my text is taken is almost exclusively devoted to that 
subject. It is remarkable at once for the broad prin- 
ciples which it lays down, and for the recognition 
which it gives to the modifying influence of excep- 
tional circumstances. Indeed, so largely does this 
last element enter into the discussion of the subject, 
that, unless we take into account what Paul has else- 
where written on the dignity and importance of the 
married relationship, we might be apt, from the pe- 
rusal of this chapter alone, to take away an entirely 
erroneous impression respecting his views. But we 



66 



PERSONAL INDEPENDENCE 



have to remember that much that he has here ad- 
vanced was for a then " present necessity," and with 
that thought in mind it is not difficult to distinguish 
between the great abiding principles which he lays 
down for all time, and the hints which he has given 
to guide his correspondents through a temporary 
difficulty. He affirms that, in their circumstances, at 
the time, celibacy would be the prudent course for 
the Corinthian believers ; yet he declares that he was 
not authorized to issue to them any command to that 
effect. Each must judge for himself, and act accord- 
ingly ; and they might all have the comfort of the 
thought that, whether they married or not, there was 
no sin in taking either alternative. Only, if they did 
marry, he would remind them that, by the law of God, 
the tie between husband and wife was for life, and 
was not to be broken, save for the one great reason 
which the Lord Jesus specified. He affirms also that 
if for any other cause husband and wife should sepa- 
rate, it was the duty of both to remain single, and 
make no other connection. How different all that is 
from the divorce laws in some of our States, and how 
much these laws are doing to poison family happi- 
ness, and degrade public morality, I will not now 
pause to point out. I will only say that while such 
laws remain unrepealed the States in which they 
exist have too much glass in the walls of their own 
houses to make it safe for them to throw stones at 
the Mormons. 

Another question which emerged from the circum- 
stances in which some of the Corinthians found them- 
selves was this : What was to be done in cases where 
the wife had become a Christian, while the husband 
continued to be an idolater? or where the husband 
was converted, while the wife remained a pagan ? 



THE RESULT OF DIVINE REDEMPTION. 67 

And to that Paul's reply was that even in such in- 
stances the indissolubleness of the marriage tie re- 
mained, and that the believing partner was to continue 
in the relationship. If the unbelieving wife did not 
object to dwell with a believing husband, he was not 
to put her away, and if the unbelieving husband did not 
refuse to dwell with a believing wife, she was not to 
think of leaving him. If a separation came, it was 
not to be the act of the believer. But if the unbe- 
lieving party to the contract broke it, of his own 
motive, by wilful desertion, for no other reason than 
the Christianity of the other, then the clear statement 
is made, " a brother or a sister is not in bondage in 
such cases." And the ground on which this advice is 
given by Paul is the same as that suggested by Peter 
in dealing with the same question. The apostle of 
the circumcision thus writes : " Likewise, ye wives, 
be in subjection to your own husbands ; that if any 
obey not the word, they also may, without a word, be 
won by the conversation of the wives " ; and in a sim- 
ilar strain Paul says here, " What knowest thou, O 
wife, whether thou shalt save thy husband? or how 
knowest thou, O man, whether thou shalt save thy 
wife ? " 

The apostle, you observe, says nothing what- 
ever here about, and gives no encouragement to, the 
deliberate choice by a believer of an unbelieving part- 
ner ; but when, both having been unbelievers, the 
husband or the wife should be converted while the 
other remains as before, his unequivocal advice is 
that the believer should continue the relationship, 
and make the best of its opportunities for Christ ; and 
in reference to all similar questions of what may be 
termed casuistry in a good sense his great law is, 
" Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he 



68 



PERSONAL INDEPENDENCE 



is called." His first duty is to sanctify that, and 
through the performance of that duty God will open 
to him a higher opportunity. This law he applies, 
first, ecclesiastically, to the questions between Jew 
and Gentile, and affirms that it is not necessary for 
the Jew to abjure his Jewish customs when he be- 
comes a Christian any more than it is for the Gentile 
to become a Jew in order to be a thorough follower 
of Christ. Then, advancing to ground that was still 
more delicate, he shows its bearing, socially, in regard 
to slavery, saying, " Art thou called, being a slave, care 
not for it ? but if thou mayest be made free, use it 
rather." Do not, as if he had said, by any violent or 
dishonorable means seek to regain your freedom ; but 
let your solace in your bondage be, that the Christian 
is the Lord's freeman. Still, do not despise liberty, 
for in itself that is better than slavery. If, therefore, 
you can peacefully and Christianly secure your free- 
dom, thankfully embrace it, and let your spiritual 
ballast be in the reflection that the believing freeman 
is the slave of Christ. 

Thus the apostle clearly indicates that Christian- 
ity is a regenerating force for the individual, and 
only through that a reformer of society. It was 
not to create a sudden revolution that should over- 
turn everything as with the shock of a devastating 
earthquake ; but it was to bring on a gradual change, 
working like the leaven in the meal on individual 
particle after particle, until the whole mass should 
be leavened. " God hath called us to peace " was 
the apostle's watchword in all such matters ; and 
any one who knows the social condition of the Bo man 
Empire when he wrote this letter, and thinks on the 
influence of his words on that, and on the countries 
into which, in after times, the gospel has been intro- 



THE RESULT OF DIVINE REDEMPTION. 



69 



duced, will be forward to admit that they were not 
only admirably judicious, but eminently far-seeing. 

All this I have said, not only that I may lay bare to 
you the intellectual and spiritual strata in which the 
words of my text lie ; but also that I may bring up 
before you principles of social and civil economics 
which are far too frequently lost sight of in these 
days. We are so impetuous in our eagerness to gain 
certain ends that we take what seems to us the short- 
est way, though that may lie through strife and misery. 
But " he that believeth shall not make ' such ' haste." 
He will abide in his calling and serve God there, wait- 
ing for results. These may not come at once, but they 
will come, and when they do they will prove by their 
wholesomeness and their permanence that they were 
worth waiting for. 

Now, it is in connection with the commanded prefer- 
ence of freedom to slavery, when that can be secured, 
that Paul says, " Ye are bought with a price ; be not 
ye the servants of men " ; as if he would have put it 
thus : use freedom rather than slavery, for Christ has 
bought you, and it is well to keep yourselves for his 
divine ownership. But the words thus appropriate to 
Paul's primary purpose have a much wider range 
than that here given to them, and the longer one 
thinks on them the more significant they become. 
They suggest the truth that spiritual redemption is 
the root of personal independence ; and to the eluci- 
dation of that — opposed as it is to many modern 
notions about Christianity — I shall devote the remain- 
der of my discourse. 

First, let us look at the assertion " Ye are bought 
with a price." This is one of the ways in which, 
in Scripture, the great effect of Christ's death in 



70 



PERSONAL INDEPENDENCE 



the room of sinners is described. That which, in 
modern theological phraseology, we have called the 
atonement, is spoken of in the word of God in 
four different, yet not inconsistent, aspects. It is 
called a sacrifice, as when Christ is said to have borne 
our sins ;* and is designated by the Baptist as " the 
Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world."f 
It is styled a redemption, as when Paul says, " In 
Christ we have redemption, through his blood, even 
the forgiveness of sins, "J and when the Lord himself 
affirms that " the Son of man came to give his life a 
ransom for many."§ It is characterized, as a declara- 
tion of God's righteousness in the forgiveness of sins, 
that " He might be just and yet the Justifier of him 
that believeth " ;|| and the same phasis of it is presented 
to us when the apostle alleges that IF" it pleased the 
Father, having made peace by the blood of his cross, 
by him to reconcile all things unto himself," for the 
making of peace by the blood of the cross was some- 
thing prior to and in order to the effecting of the re- 
conciliation, and must, therefore, be equivalent to the 
declaration of righteousness whereby he is just and 
yet the Justifier of the believer. And finally, it is all 
traced up to the love of God, " Who gave his only be- 
gotten Son that whosoever believeth on him might 
not perish but have everlasting life. Thus the death 
of Christ did not purchase God's love for sinners, 
but manifested that love, and opened for it a right- 
eous channel through which it might flow to guilty 
men. 



* 1 Peter ii. 24. § Matthew xx. 28. 

f John i. 29. || Rom. iii. 26 

t Eph. i. 7 ; Col. i. 14. U Col. i. 20. 

** John iii. 16. 



THE RESULT OF DIVINE REDEMPTION. 71 



Now, the mere fact that this vast subject is presented 
to us in so many different ways is a proof that no one 
mode of speech can fully describe its character ; and 
the great source of the discussions which have been 
held regarding it is that each of the disputants has 
adopted one of these statements concerning it, as if 
that contained the whole truth about it and involved 
in it the negation of all the rest. But the true induc- 
tive spirit is that which accepts all the four, and main- 
tains that the atonement is the great whole which holds 
them all in harmony. Christ's death was the mani- 
festation of God's love, in the provision of an all-suffi- 
cient sacrifice for human sin, whereby his righteous- 
ness is declared in the forgiveness and salvation of be- 
lieving men — usually called their redemption. In this 
way of putting the matter, the redemption will de- 
scribe the result in the case of believers of their 
acceptance of Christ as their sacrifice ; and that is 
borne out by the use of the word in many passages of 
Scripture. For in one place we have " waiting for the 
adoption, to wit, the redemption of the body ; " and 
again, believers are said to be "sealed until the 
day of redemption" ; while more than once we have 
" redemption " identified with " the forgiveness of 
sins." The Redeemer is Jesus Christ, the price is 
his precious blood, and the redemption is the re- 
sult of his payment of that price in his abso- 
lute ownership of those whom he has thus pur- 
chased. This ownership involves on his part the be- 
Btowment of pardon and salvation upon them, and on 
theirs the giving up of everything which is incon- 
sistent with his service according to Peter's words, 
" Ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible 
things as silver and gold, from your vain conversation 
received by tradition from your fathers ; but with 



72 



PEKSONAL INDEPENDENCE 



the precious blood of Christ ; "* and that exhortation 
of Paul, "Ye are bought with a price, therefore glorify 
God in your bodies and your spirits which are God's."t 
The language, of course, is figurative, and if, in the 
case of an ordinary analogy, it is not possible, as 
Macaulay says, to make it go on all fours and run it 
out into every little detail, we may be sure that any 
such attempt is hopeless here. It was in seeking to 
do that, as is well known, that the theologians of the 
Middle Ages — and even some of the post-Keformation 
era — fell into the atrocious absurdity of affirming that 
the redemption price of Christ's blood was paid to 
Satan, because sinners are held captive by him at his 
will. So we must be warned by their example, and walk 
warily. The following things, however, seem to me to 
be clear, namely : that the price is the blood of Christ ; 
and that the effect of the payment of that price is that 
believers belong body, soul, and spirit to Christ as his 
purchased property or possession ; while the act 
of payment appears to me to be equivalent to that 
" making peace by the blood " which Paul has spoken 
of as a declaration or manifestation of righteousness 
made by God in the setting of Christ forth as a propi- 
tiation for the forgiveness of sins through faith in his 
blood. But in the words of my text, the apostle, 
without caring to press the analogy so far as to specify 
to whom or why the price was paid, gives prominence 
to the result in the case of believers — "Ye are 
bought"; or, as he has elsewhere put it, "Ye are not 
your own " — you belong, by right of his purchase, to 
Christ ; your intellects are his to be instructed by 
him ; your consciences are his to be regulated by 
him ; your lives are his to be ruled by him, ab- 



* 1 Peter i. 18. 



f 1 Cor. vi. 20. 



THE RESULT OF DIVINE REDEMPTION. 73 

solutely and entirely you are his. Now at first sight 
that reads like a consignment of us to the most abject 
slavery ; for no human oppression can thoroughly en- 
chain the spirit. But here it must be remembered that 
what on the Lord's side is a purchase, is on the be- 
liever's side a voluntary consecration, and that the 
Master is not a man but the God-man, with whom op- 
pression is impossible. Thus it comes about that this 
divine ownership of us by Jesus is the charter of our 
deliverance from our fellow-men, and the paradox that 
the service of Christ is perfect freedom is made good. 
" Ye are bought with a price ; be not ye the servants 
of men." 

Now in looking at this inference from the fact of 
our redemption by Christ, we must beware, on the 
very threshold, lest we fall into mistake. Paul does 
not mean to say that all manner of service of men is 
inconsistent with our ownership by Christ. "We have 
only to read his exhortations to servants in his vari- 
ous epistles to be convinced of that. What he desires 
to allege is that Christ's property in us emancipates 
us from abject slavery to men in every form which 
is inconsistent with that property. No man can de- 
prive us of that which already belongs to Christ; 
and it is through the assertion of that principle by 
Christians that all the victories of religious freedom 
have been won in the world. 

Take, for example, the slavery of the intellect, as 
that was attempted to be fastened upon men by 
authority in matters of faith. You know the degrada- 
tion to which popery reduced the people in this depart- 
ment ; and you know, too, how the yoke was broken 
when Luther and his compeers in other lands ex- 
alted the gospel, and told their hearers that it was 
their blessed privilege, as Christ's blood-bought ones, 



74 



PERSONAL INDEPENDENCE 



to take their belief from him. For the right of pri- 
vate judgment, as they expounded it, was not the 
liberty of every man to think as he pleased, but the 
inalienable privilege of the believer to take the 
truth from the lips of his Lord. And you can 
see, at once, how this same principle delivers us 
to-day from the yoke of party and the dictation of 
men. If I am a redeemed man, I belong to Christ, 
and have no master but him. I refuse, then, to be 
told by any man what I must believe. I refuse to 
allow any man to come between Christ and me to in- 
terpret his words. I have to do directly and imme- 
diately with Christ alone. What he says to me I 
will accept simply because he says it ; but I will have 
no interference from others, since that is a dis- 
honor to him. This is as different from rational- 
ism, on the one hand, as it is from Romanism, and 
every other ism which arrogates to itself intolerance 
and authority, on the other. Rationalism repudiates 
Christ, and takes only what pleases itself ; Roman- 
ism enthrones a human infallibility which lays down 
the law as to the interpretation of Christ ; but the 
consciousness that I am bought with a price enthrones 
Christ over my intellect, and I take my faith implic- 
itly and immediately from him. He has purchased 
me wholly for himself, and by that purchase he has 
emancipated me from the interference of men, for 
now I follow him. There may be doubt in a man's 
mind as to whether he will accept Christ's redemp- 
tion or not; and after he has accepted redemp- 
tion, there may be doubt in his mind as to the mean- 
ing of some of Christ's sayings ; but when he has 
accepted Christ as his Saviour, and has come to 
a clear understanding of what Christ has affirmed, 
the redeemed man receives that ; and claims, right- 



THE RESULT OF DIVINE REDEMPTION. 



75 



fully too, that in receiving it, he shall not be 
troubled with human intervention. That does not 
mean that if by following this rule he is led to the 
adoption of views inconsistent with the terms on 
which he holds his position, say as a minister in a 
church, he has still a right to hold that position. As 
an honest man, in such a case he will give up his 
position, counting the loss as nothing for the sake of 
Christ, and, in doing that, he will secure the respect of 
every one ; whereas by taking the opposite course he 
will forfeit the confidence of all who love righteous- 
ness ; and if he draw down upon himself remonstrance, 
or discipline, or disfellowship, he has no more right 
to call out that he is persecuted than one who breaks 
a contract has to complain of injustice when he is ar- 
raigned before a court of law. Thus the personal inde- 
pendence in matters of faith which is secured for us by 
our redemption is different from rationalism, which 
repudiates all authority in religion, and from latitudi- 
narianism, which acts as if it were quite a proper 
thing for one who has received a position on a cer- 
tain condition, to retain that position even when the 
condition annexed to it has been broken. And yet 
this liberty, thus regulated by allegiance to Christ, is 
a very real thing, for it keeps the man in his own 
proper orbit, throwing off human intolerance on the 
one side, and accepting divine direction on the other, 
If he yielded to the one, there would be slavery ; if 
he abjured the other, there would be license ; but 
the course he takes is one of freedom, and the result 
secured by taking it differs as much from latitudi- 
narianism as the Reformation from Popery differed 
from the first French Revolution. 

But leaving now the department of the intellect, I 
think it is easy to see how the principle on which I 



76 



PERSONAL INDEPENDENCE 



am now insisting leads directly and immediately to 
liberty of conscience. If I am bought with a price, 
then my conscience is Christ's. Pie alone is its Lord, 
and I am bound to hold it sacredly for him. That 
is the holy of holies of my nature, wherein none but 
the Divine High Priest may enter ; and when he 
sprinkles his blood of atonement there, he marks it 
as inalienably his own. What I solemnly in the light 
of his word and by the illumination of his Spirit feel to 
be my duty, that I must do because I am his, and no 
power is to be allowed to coerce me into the violation 
of these sacred convictions. This was the principle 
which the English Puritans maintained ; and this too, 
only more as it respects the church, perhaps, than in- 
dividuals, was the ground on which the Scottish Cove- 
nanters planted themselves. It cost them a great deal 
to hold it ; but their loyalty to Christ gave them their 
courage, and in the end they won their victory. Men 
sneer nowadays indeed, when in these old histories 
they come across the phrase " the headship of 
Christ," and, pronouncing it with sniveling ridicule, 
they style it the very essence of cant. But that 
phrase was for the men who used it the crystallization 
of the principle that is beneath Paul's words " ye are 
bought with a price," and when they unfurled their 
banner it bore upon it the strange unworldly device 
"for Christ, his Crown, and Covenant." Their strug- 
gle, therefore, was not like that of Tell in Switzerland, 
or of Wallace in Scotland, or of Washington and his 
comrades in America, for merely natural or national 
rights, glorious as all these conflicts were. Their 
struggle was not for any claim of their own, but for 
Christ's redemptive right of ownership over their 
consciences. They resisted unto blood because they 
wished to preserve the sacred kingdom of their souls 



THE RESULT OF DIVINE REDEMPTION. 77 



from being polluted and profaned by other lordship 
or royalty than that of Jesus ; and by their effort to 
secure that they attained also to civil freedom. 
The outcome of that conflict is seen to-day, not only 
in the difference between the Great Britain of the 
present and that of two hundred years ago ; but also 
here in America, for the Declaration of Independence 
and the Constitution of this Eepublic, with its recent 
amendments, are only the expansion and development 
of the work which these blood-bought men began. 
Sneer now, if you dare, at " the headship of Christ " ! 
or ask me now, will you, if I am not talking in para- 
doxes when I speak of Christ's absolute ownership of 
his redeemed ones as the root of personal independ- 
ence and well regulated freedom ? 

But, not to mention other illustrations of this 
principle, you may see finally how it operates in 
emancipating us from slavery to worldly fashion, or to 
the public opinion of men. For if we belong to 
Christ, and if we are only sure that he would have us 
pursue a certain course of conduct, what does it mat- 
ter to us what others think or say regarding us ? 
There is, I know, such a thing as a love of singularity 
for its own sake, or a contempt of fashion, even in 
things indifferent, simply because it is fashion, or a 
defiance of public opinion only to insult it. But 
Christianity gives no countenance to any of these 
things. Paul in all things non-essential became 
all things to all men that he might by all means 
save some : and we may be very sure that no princi- 
ples advocated by him would ever condemn such 
conduct in others. But when fashion would usurp the 
place of Christ, or when we are moved more by the 
consideration of the good will of our fellows than we 
are by regard to the Master's word, — then we are 



78 



PERSONAL INDEPENDENCE 



disloyal to him and are robbing him of that which 
he has purchased by his blood. Now, it is from that 
unmanly deference to customs and opinions, when 
conscience says that it is right to ignore them, that the 
sense of Christ's ownership sets us free ; and every 
man who says " no " to those influences which Chris* 
has commanded him to resist is as really fighting 
for liberty as were the " minute-men " in the days of 
the Revolution ; and is as true a hero as those who 
bled at Marathon or Leuctra. Aye, and if he fight 
on he may yet work out emancipation for multitudes 
besides himself. See how much has been accom- 
plished in this way by our Christian Temperance men. 
They have not only earned their own freedom — so that 
now there is nothing unfashionable in their course — 
but they have made their position such that no one 
needs be ashamed to take it, thereby, as I believe, 
diminishing temptation in many homes. Nor should 
we forget others who have wrought out like emanci- 
pation for their fellows. I never meet a Friend 
with his peculiar dress and his methodical speech 
without having some admiration for the stand he has 
taken. It may be that now that which was in the outset 
a protest against formalism has itself become a form. 
It may be that what was a real voice in the case of 
George Fox and his first disciples has too largely now 
become merely an echo. It may be that there is as 
much pride to-day in wearing that quaint attire as 
there was in the fashion of the period against which 
it was a protest. But still there is a right noble 
history beneath the broacl-brim. The position of its 
wearer was taken originally out of regard to Christ's 
redemptive right over his people ; and the outcome of 
it is seen in the fact that in every struggle for liberty, 
humanity, education, and the personal protection of 



THE RESULT OF DIVINE REDEMPTION. 79 

the weak, you will find a Quaker in the foreground. 
So his personal independence was rooted in spiritual 
redemption, and bore its fruit in the larger liberty of 
the nation. Ah ! if we were to remember always that 
we belong to Christ, from how many dangers we should 
be set free, and how many temptations we should then 
overcome with ease ! Take, then, this truth with you, 
ye men of business, into your daily conduct, and when 
others taunt you with being under restraint because, 
as belonging to Christ, you cannot do what they would 
ask, tell them that you are really battling for a larger 
liberty, and that the stand you make is, in that aspect 
of it, even more truly for their advantage than would 
be your yielding to their desires. And you, ye 
young men whose cry is for liberty ; whose aspiration 
is for manhood ; and whose watch- word is independ- 
ence, learn here how you can find all three safely, 
surely and permanently through the acceptance of the 
redemption of Christ. The most absolute devotion to 
Christ is the most complete declaration of individual 
independence ; even as the defiant rejection of Christ 
on the score of liberty issues in the most degrading- 
form of slavery. These things may seem to be con- 
tradictory, but they are true, and they have been often 
demonstrated to be so in the history alike of indi- 
viduals and of the race. Make your choice between 
them, and do not let yourselves be beguiled by first 
appearances, for here, too, the prize is in the leaden 
casket, and the highest liberty is to be found in that 
which is the lowliest service. Therefore choose to 
be ransomed by Christ that you may be delivered 
from servitude to men. 



January 9, 1881 



THE UNTRODDEN PATH 



Joshua iii. 4. — Ye have not passed this way heretofore. 

Aftee their weary wilderness journey of forty years, 
the tribes of Israel had come to the Jordan, the cross- 
ing of which was now the only difficulty that lay be- 
tween them and the promised land. Strangely con- 
flicting must have been their emotions during their 
three days' encampment by the river side. As they 
looked back upon the past thankfulness would predomi- 
nate, though the absence of their old men, and notably 
thai of Moses and Aaron, would tinge their gratitude 
with sadness ; as they gazed upon the far landscape, 
and thought cf the time when the fertile fields of 
Canaan would be all their own, hope would whisper 
to them of the blessings which were yet in store for 
them ; but when at length their eyes rested on the 
rapid river raging in autumnal flood, as if defying 
them to pass over its waters, everything else would 
be forgotten in the immediate peril that was before 
them, and the one great absorbing question with them 
all would be, "What shall we do in these proud swell- 
ing waves ? how shall we ford that broad, deep, rapid, 
roaring river ? " 

To meet that state of heart among them, Joshua 
issued minute directions to the host. He told them 
that the priests bearing the ark of the covenant would 
go before them, and he commanded that they were to 
follow at the distance of a thousand yards, assuring 
them that, as they did so, the Lord himself would 



THE UNTRODDEN PATH. 



81 



make a passage for them. But to ensure their care- 
ful attention to his instructions he added, " Ye have 
not passed this way heretofore." As if he had put it 
thus : " This is a new experience for you ; there has 
been and there can be no opportunity of rehearsing 
for it ; it is the first thing of its kind that has come in 
your history, therefore be sure that you keep a clear, 
open space between you and the ark, so that each of 
you may see it, and may be cheered and encouraged 
by the consciousness of the presence of Him whose 
glory hovers ever symbolically over it." They had 
become perfectly familiar with the order of march in 
the wilderness, so that each tribe could now almost 
mechanically take its place ; and elevated as the pillar 
of cloud and fire was, they could all see that with 
ease, whether they were near to it or far away from 
it ; but, in this instance, the ark was to be the means 
of their deliverance, and, borne as that was upon 
men's shoulders, if they followed close upon it only 
those in the few foremost ranks would be able to get 
a glimpse of it. Hence that it might be fully in the 
view of all, an open space of two thousand cubits was 
to be reserved between it and the crossing host. Had 
they been well acquainted with the matter, had it been 
the second or third time in their experience that they 
had crossed a river thus, there would have been less 
need to give such particular admonition, but as they 
were to be in circumstances entirely new to them, as 
they were to pass over an untrodden path, peculiar 
care was requisite. The event justified the assurance 
of Joshua, for, when the feet of the priests touched 
the water, the river stood still, and when the people 
reached the other shore they raised a memorial with 
stones taken from the bed of the Jordan to attest to 
future generations the goodness of their covenant God. 
4* 



82 



THE UNTRODDEN PATH. 



Now from this memorable incident in Israel's his- 
tory we may deduce a general principle which will be 
very helpful to ourselves. The crossing of the Jordan 
may stand for any new experience of peculiar uncer- 
tainty through which a man is required to pass ; the 
ark of the covenant, with its mystic symbol of God's 
presence hovering over the blood-stained mercy-seat, 
may be taken as representing God's presence with his 
people, as reconciled to them through Jesus Christ ; 
and the direction to keep the ark in view while cross- 
ing the river, may for modern life, be formulated into 
the maxim that in all new and untried circumstances 
our true safeguard is to let nothing come between us 
and the perception of the truth that God is in Christ 
reconciling the world to himself, and guiding his 
people to safety and immortal blessedness. Frequent- 
ly, in the course of a man's life, he is brought to a 
standstill before some new difficulty of which till 
then he has had no experience. Things which he has 
to do or suffer every day become familiar to him, and 
he acquires a facility in reference to them ; but when 
he has some duty to discharge of a delicate and im- 
portant character, and like to nothing that he has 
ever had before, or when he has a trial to bear which 
is different from every other which he has been called 
to endure in the past, there comes a time of thought- 
ful pause, like those three days spent by the Israelites 
on the bank of the Jordan, during which he asks him- 
self how he is to discharge the duty or to endure the 
cross. Now at such an emergency here is the answer 
that is given by this ancient story : Put the ark of 
God in the river before you, and keep it fully in your 
sight, then though it be overflowing all its banks, you 
shall go over dry shod. This is the thought which 
to-day I mean, by God's help, to vivify and illustrate. 



THE UNTRODDEN PATH. 



83 



With the Kecleemer as our atoning sacrifice and oui 
priestly intercessor clearly before our faith-eye, we 
are safe not only in pursuing the beaten track of daily 
life, but also in entering upon and passing oyer new 
and untried pathways. Let us take a few instances. 

There is the young person leaving the parental 
home and beginning independent life. The lad has 
known all the experiences of school, and has, perhaps, 
also made trial of business duties, while yet his even- 
ings and mornings have been spent in the loved 
society of the family circle ; but now he is to go forth 
a stranger to an unknown city, mayhap even to cross 
the ocean to a foreign land. The faces he is to look 
upon he has never before seen ; the duties he is to 
discharge he has never before performed ; the dangers 
he is to encounter he has not heretofore met ; the 
temptations he is to be exposed to he has never 
yet confronted ; everything is to be new. Hence, 
whatever else there may be in his heart, there 
is beneath, unspoken and almost unspeakable, a 
nervous anxiety as to what is before him, and as to 
how he shall get through it. High hope will brighten 
the future for him with its visions of honor and 
success. There will be a natural and laudable self- 
gratulation at the assumption by him of the respon- 
sibilities of manhood, and he may be able so to 
repress his feelings in bidding father and mother fare- 
well that a superficial observer may think that he is 
setting out in highest spirits ; but in the depths of 
his soul there will be, and the more thoughtful he is 
the more there will be, a solicitude about the future, 
and he will be ever considering how he will fill his 
new position with honor to himself, satisfaction to all 
concerned, and glory to God. Now to all, in such 
circumstances, there comes the principle which I 



84 



THE UNTRODDEN PATH. 



have deduced from this interesting portion of Script- 
ure narrative. Keep the ark clearly before you, 
young man, and you have nothing to fear. Let your 
heart ever turn to the Lord Jesus, let your soul ever 
feel the constraining influence of his love ; let your 
eye ever rest upon his holy example ; let your faith 
ever fix itself upon his atoning death, and that will 
make darkness light before you, and crooked things 
straight, and rough places smooth. The mariner who 
can use his quadrant can always tell where he is if he 
can but get a glimpse of the sun at noon-day ; and 
you may always know your way if you keep unclouded 
before your faith eye the Sun of Righteousness. 
"What the pocket compass is to the traveler over the 
trackless moor, that the sight of the ark is to the 
Christian. Let nothing, therefore, intervene between 
you and that. Do not allow gain, or pleasure, or 
honor, or fashion, or applause to come between you 
and your covenant God. Wherever you are, look to 
him, and go not where you cannot get a clear and un- 
interrupted view of him, for with him in sight it will 
be safe for you to go where foot of man has never 
trodden, but without him you will be sure to stumble, 
even though your path should lie along the broadest 
and the smoothest and the most frequented highway. 

But that I may not seem to imply that only young 
men have anxiety in beginning what I have called in- 
dependent life, we may farther apply this principle to 
the young woman, on the day when she leaves her 
father's house to be the center of the home circle of 
another. What hopes have gravitated toward that 
day ! what preparations have been made for it ! what 
congratulations have been uttered regarding it ! Yet 
now that it has dawned there is, at her heart, a flut- 
tering of strange anxiety. She knows the life that is 



THE UNTRODDEN PATH. 



85 



passed, but what life shall that be which lies all un- 
discovered and unexplored before her ? That is the 
question which will press itself in upon her thoughts, 
and which gives to her countenance the absent ex- 
pression that seems so peculiar. All is mirth and 
gayety around her. tier parents will not let her see 
any of the shadow that rests upon their spirits at 
parting with her. Every one is loading her with pres- 
ents and following her with good wishes. Her hus- 
band's face is beaming with unalloyed delight, and 
she tries to reciprocate his joy. But, in spite of her- 
self, she feels a palpitating solicitude about the future. 
It is not that she has any, the slightest, element of 
distrust in him with whom she has linked her lot, but 
rather that she distrusts herself, and is questioning 
whether she is equal to the new duties that devolve 
upon her. So on the very verge of the river she 
seems to stand wich " reluctant feet," as if she hardly 
dared to cross. But here there comes the principle 
of which I have been speaking. Let her put the ark 
in the river and keep that in sight, and all will be well. 
Let her resolutely look to Jesus as her Saviour and 
sovereign, and the duties of her new life will become 
easy. No matter what cares or crosses may come, 
with Christ in sight nothing can come wrong ; and if 
she will only keep earthly things from hiding him 
and his salvation from her view, she will find that she 
carries everywhere with her a quiet happiness in her 
heart, and that, like Spenser's Una, 

— ' ' her angel face, 
As the great eye of heaven, shines bright, 
And makes a sunshine in a shady place." 

The most perplexing things will become easy when 
we see Jesus in them ; but if we let him be hidden 



86 



THE UNTRODDEN PATH. 



from us by any influence whatever, then the merest 
trifle may become a fretting source of never-ceasing 
misery. 

But, passing from the consideration of the entrance 
on a new sphere of life, the principle on which I am 
now insisting is admirably appropriate to the case of 
those who find themselves face to face with a difficult 
duty such as has never before confronted them. In 
general every man's life, after he has fairly set out 
upon its labors, has what we might call an " even ten- 
or." There is an ordinary routine of work to be done. 
Every day is very much like every other ; and after 
a time his anxiety almost disappears, because he feels 
himself able to meet the general demands which are 
made upon him. But now and then this tranquil- 
lity is interrupted. Something comes that he has not 
forecast. There is a danger before him the like of 
which he has never faced. There is a work to be done 
of which he has had no experience. He is distrust- 
ful of himself in the matter. He knows not wheth- 
er he shall be equal to the exigency. He is, as the 
psalm expresses it, " at his wits' end." He is like the 
medical man before a new and unheard-of disease, 
or like the young seaman, when for the first time the 
dreaded hurricane comes howling down upon him. 
He knows not what to do. Now here again our prac- 
tical maxim becomes valuable. Send the ark before 
you and keep it in sight. Remember Jesus and his 
atoning death. Think of the mercy-seat, and of him 
who sitteth thereon as " the hearer of prayer." Let 
the truths about Christ and his sacrifice and interces- 
sion fill your soul. Open your hearts for the recep- 
tion of the Holy Spirit, and then you will be guided 
as safely through your difficulty as were the tribes 
through the swollen river. Men of business ! here is 



THE UNTRODDEN PATH, 



87 



a most useful directory for you. Amid the cares and 
liarassments of your daily engagements, you are too 
apt to think that religion and the work of Jesus have 
nothing to do with such concerns ; and so, even in 
times of hitherto unexperienced difficulty, I fear that 
it is only rarely that you think of looking to him. 
Too often, indeed, it is not until, in the attempt to 
cross the river without his help, you are borne away 
by the flood, that you dream of calling upon him; 
whereas, if you had only thought of him in time, he 
would have given you strength to breast it, or he 
would have parted it before you and led you over it 
dry-shod. Not for spiritual difficulties alone, not for 
religious duties merely, as men too commonly use 
these words, does our maxim hold. To the Christian 
every difficulty is a spiritual difficulty, and every duty 
is a religious duty, and so in every emergency he is 
warranted to look to Christ ; nay, he is guilty of a sin 
not more against God than against himself, if he does 
not. The ark is as much in its proper place in the 
counting-house as in the family or in the church ; 
and if in your business perplexities you had more re- 
course to Jesus directly and immediately, without let- 
ting any intervening human element come in to hide 
him from your thoughts, you would more frequently 
have deliverances to tell of, and would find yourselves 
singing "new ebenezers" to his praise. Depend upon 
it, you will not soon lose yourselves if you keep him 
in view. Some years ago a party of travelers were 
passing over one of the Swiss mountains. After they 
had gone a considerable way it began to snow heavily, 
and the oldest of the guides gravely shook his head, 
and said, " If the wind rises we are lost." Scarcely 
had he spoken when a gale arose, the snow was 
whirled into multitudinous drifts, and all waymarks 



88 



THE UNTRODDEN PATH. 



were obliterated. Cautiously they moved on, not 
knowing where they were, and almost giving them- 
selves up for lost. At length one of the guides, who 
had gone a short way before them to search out the 
path, was heard shouting, " The cross ! The cross ! 
Tv r e are all right." And what had the cross to do 
with it ? It was one of those religious memorials 
which we so frequently meet in Koman Catholic coun- 
tries, and this one, set up at first by some private 
individual for a personal reason, had become at length 
a well-known and easily recognized landmark for the 
traveler. Hence the moment the guide saw it he 
knew where he was, and what direction to take. But 
what was true of that symbol in their case is true in 
all instances of the thing which it signifies ; for we 
may always know where we are when, with our faith 
eye, we can see Christ crucified. That reveals every 
peril, and pierces through every disguise of evil. That 
bars the way to every dishonor, and barricades the 
entrance to every pathway of iniquity. Keep that, 
therefore, in uninterrupted view and you will never 
lose your way. Get hold of the principles which un- 
derlie the work of the Lord Jesus as the Kedeemer of 
men ; receive into your hearts the Holy Spirit whom 
he has promised, then difficulties will become easy, 
and your way will be opened up before you as you 
move forward ; for as the rod of Moses divided the sea, 
and the mantle of Elijah parted the waters of Jordan, 
even so faith in the crucified Redeemer will find or 
make a way in every emergency. 

But, taking another line of remark, the maxim to 
which I have referred may be applied to those who 
are called upon for the first time to bear some heavy 
trial. Sorrow, in some form or other, must come upon 
us in the world. But the commonness of it does not 



THE UNTRODDEN PATH. 



89 



make its experience a whit less bitter to those who 
are required to drink its cup. No matter how many 
others have suffered before us, our first acquaintance 
with grief is ever keen and poignant. It may be occa- 
sioned by different causes, and each one thinks he 
could better have borne it if it had taken him in some 
other form. In some it may be produced, as it was 
occasionally in David's experience, by the treachery 
of friends ; in others, by the ingratitude and ungod- 
liness of a disobedient son ; in others, by the painful 
and peculiar illness of those dearest to them ; in others, 
by personal affliction ; in others, by the visit of the 
angel of death to their home. But, however it comes, 
the first experience of sorrow is a thing that cuts 
the soul to the quick, and leaves upon the heart an in- 
effaceable record. Like the highest tide upon the 
shore, it sweeps up with it the remains of the lower, 
and leaves its mark longest upon the strand. I dare 
say there are few here who do not know from their own 
histories how true these words are. Thus, to take 
one illustration from those I have just mentioned, 
how terrible the earliest acquaintance with bereave- 
ment ! It is a solemn time when first Death knocks at 
our door for admission, and will not be gainsaid, and 
whoever be his victim, whether a venerable parent, or a 
beloved partner, or a darling child, the anguish of the 
moment is intense. I shall never forget, while mem- 
ory lasts, the strangeness of the experience through 
which I passed when first the reaper " whose name 
is Death" came into my home, and " with his sickle 
keen " cut down, at one thrust, two of my children. 
The stroke blinded me for the moment, and I was like 
one utterly forlorn ; but when at length I opened my 
eyes, I saw the ark in the river, and that instantly 
steadied me. I knew then where I was. I rente in- 



90 



THE UNTRODDEN PATH. 



bered then that he who had done it was my covenant 
God, to whom I had given my little ones in baptism, 
and since he had chosen so to accept my gift, I asked 
myself why I should be dismayed? From my own 
experience, therefore, I can attest the efficacy of this 
consolation, and commend it to all who are in trouble, 
more especially to those who have been bereaved. 
Let the truth symbolized by that ark be but accepted 
in simple faith, and even in the moment of utter deso- 
lation there will come the calmness of resignation, 
and the confidence which only the hope of reunion 
with our loved ones can impart. This alone can avail 
us at such a time. The sympathy of friends is sooth- 
ing and sweet, the kindly offices rendered by self-for- 
getting neighbors are valuable, and the memory of 
them is laid up in the holiest recesses of our hearts ; 
but these alone would not take the sting out of the 
sorrow, or the bitterness out of the cup. Only the 
revelation made by Jesus, in and through his life, 
death, and resurrection, as the substitute of men, can 
lift the heart out of its sadness and link the recollec- 
tions of the happy past with the hopes of the golden 
and glorious future. No matter what else we look to, 
we shall still find ourselves in the swelling of the 
river ; but the moment we see J esus our feet stand 
on dry ground. He assures us that our loved ones 
live still, only in a higher and more blessed condition, 
and he awakens thus within us a desire to depart and 
to be with him and them. 

This leads me naturally to remark, in the last place, 
that the maxim which I have been illustrating may be 
applied to our own death. That is an experience which 
must be always unknown to us until we die. How- 
ever many we may have seen depart, the path to our- 
selves must be strange and untraversed. Nothing can 



THE UNTRODDEN PATH. 



91 



acquaint us with it save the treading of it for ourselves. 
But Jesus, by his own death and resurrection, has 
put the ark before us, and looking at that we shall 
find the river dry. Brother ! sister ! you must die ! 
That experience you must pass through, not as the 
Israelites crossed the Jordan in the midst of a crowded 
company, but alone. O, see to it that you can keep 
Christ in view, for he alone can then sustain you. 
Through death he has himself delivered them who, 
through fear of death, have been all their lifetime 
subject to bondage. These, too, are his precious 
words : " When thou passest through the waters I will 
be with thee, and through the rivers, they shall not 
overflow thee. When thou passest through the fire 
thou shall not be burned, neither shall the flame 
kindle upon thee." " I will never leave thee nor for- 
sake thee." By the free gift of pardon he has taken 
the sting out of death, and by his resurrection from the 
dead he has robbed the grave of its victory. What, 
then, have we to fear ? When we can see him we can 
calmly sing : 

" The hour may be nigh when our bosoms, faint heaving 1 , 
Shall breathe their last sigh in the peace of believing. 
And Thou, from our pillow all darkness dispelling, 
Wilt calm the rude billow of Jordan's proud swelling. 
Hallelujah to the Lamb who has brought us a pardon, 
We will praise him again when we've passed over Jordan." 

But there may be some here who have never yet 
made Jesus their saviour by simple trust in him ; and 
to them I must address one parting word. You have 
had many difficulties to confront in the past. You 
know how you failed before them. When your busi- 
ness went from beneath you, and you had no prop to 
lean upon, how dreary were you then without the 
Lord! Y/hen your child died, and all the world 



92 



THE UNTRODDEN PATH. 



seemed to you draped in sadness, how utterly pros- 
trate were you then in the consciousness that you had 
no hold on Christ ! When you were laid aside with 
serious sickness, and you thought that you should 
die, how was your heart filled with dread at the pros- 
pect of meeting God ! Oh, let the experience of the 
pasfc warn you for the future ! If you failed under the 
lesser trials, how will you endure the greater ? " If 
thou hast run with the footmen and they have wearied 
thee, how shalt thou contend with horses ? and if in 
the land of peace wherein thou trustedst they wearied 
thee, what wilt thou do in the swellings of Jordan ? " 
" None but Christ ; none but Christ," said Lambert 
at the stake ; and there is none else can be a real 
helper unto you, either in life or death. Put the ark 
before you, then, and keep it full in view. That only 3 
but that always, will make the channel dry. 

December 30, 1877. 



THE PAST IRREVOCABLE. 



Detjt. xvii. 16. Ye shall henceforth return no more that way. 

These words in their primary application are a pro- 
hibition. They occur in that section of Deuteronomy 
which has been supposed by certain modern critics 
to prove that the book, as a whole, is not the work of 
Moses, but belongs to a much later period in Jewish 
history. Forecasting the future, and contemplating 
the contingency that after their settlement in Canaan 
the tribes would desire a king, like other nations, the 
great lawgiver, guided by the Spirit of God, lays 
down the principles which, in such a case, they were 
to follow, and specifies certain things which their 
king should particularly guard against. But if we 
admit the possibility of the supernatural in the shape 
of prophecy at all, there is absolutely nothing in all 
this inconsistent with the common belief that Moses 
himself gave these directions ; and if we deny the 
possibility of the supernatural altogether, the ques- 
tion goes farther back than the matter of the author- 
ship of Deuteronomy, and becomes one involving 
the existence and personality of God himself. That, 
however, is not a matter of criticism, but of philoso- 
phy; and just as on a trial for high treason the 
prosecutor does not feel himself bound to enter on 
a long argument to prove the legitimacy of the 
government, so when objections of the kind which 
I have indicated are raised against the authenticity 
of certain portions of the Scriptures, the defender 



94 



THE PAST IRREVOCABLE. 



is not required to establish anew the possibility 
of the supernatural. If reasons of another sort are 
given, these must be weighed and answered ; but 
if, on the simple ground that all prophecy must have 
been written after the event, it is proposed to deny 
the earlier date of the book which contains a predic- 
tion of it, then we may safely dismiss the plea as in- 
admissible, at least at that stage ; and so refuse to be 
diverted from our purpose by the attempt to debate 
any such question. This volume, as a whole, pro- 
fesses to be a revelation from God. If there be no 
God, or if it be impossible for him to make known his 
will to men through a book sealed by miracles and 
prophecies, then there is an end of the matter. But 
if there be a God, and if the possibility of his work- 
ing miracles and giving through his servants predic- 
tions of future events be conceded, then there is no 
relevancy whatever in the objection to the Mosaic 
authorship of this book, on the ground that here we 
have a reference to a state of things which did not 
exist until centuries after Moses lived. This con- 
sideration, then, removes the question from the 
region of criticism altogether, and makes it not so 
much one of Moses or not Moses, as of God or no 
God. 

But while the matter of the kingdom did not come 
up until long after Moses' day, there is in this injunc- 
tion against the multiplication of horses, with its 
appended explanation, something which to my mind 
clearly indicates that the prohibition belongs to a 
date immediately subsequent to the journeyings of the 
people through the wilderness. So far as the history 
makes manifest, there was not, in the days of 
Samuel, any tendency among the people to go down 
again into Egypt. Amid all their struggles with sur- 



THE PAST IRREVOCABLE. 



95 



rounding tribes under the Judges, we never read of 
any desire among the Israelites to call in the aid of 
those who had formerly been their oppressors. But 
it was otherwise immediately after the exodus ; for 
then the burden of their exclamations in any time of 
trial always was regret that they had left Egypt ; and 
even in the very year before they entered Canaan, 
within twelve months of the time at which Moses 
spoke these words, when they were suffering from 
thirst, they cried, "Wherefore have ye made us to 
come up out of Egypt to bring us into this evil place ? " 
So in the words here used concerning the king : " He 
shall not multiply horses unto himself, nor cause the 
people to return to Egypt, to the end that he should 
multiply horses," there is that which is clearly 
Mosaic, as resting on his knowledge of the repeated 
hankerings of the people after the material comforts of 
their house of bondage. Here was a reason admirably 
appropriate in the mouth of one who had heard the 
murmurings of the tribes at being deprived of the good 
things of Egypt, but scarcely such as would have been 
given by a person writing at the beginning of the 
Jewish monarchy. The prediction relates to things 
a long way before ; but the argument by which the 
injunction accompanying it is enforced rests upon ex- 
periences which, to Moses, were still things of yes- 
terday. 

I have referred to these matters only because of 
the prominence into which recent controversies have 
brought this section of the book of Deuteronomy ; and 
because I think that sufficient attention has not been 
given to the point which I have just brought out. 

But now, leaving this discussion, which is per- 
haps more appropriate for the lecture-room than for 
the pulpit, let me, before proceeding to outline the 



96 



fHE PAST IREEVOCABLE. 



train of thought which the words of my text have sug- 
gested to me, put distinctly before you the great 
lesson which this prohibition enforces. It tells us 
that they who have left Egypt must never return 
thither. The Christian convert must keep clear of his 
old bondage-house. He must have nothing more to 
do with sin. Having named the name of Christ, he is 
to depart from all iniquity. From and after the 
" henceforth " of his conversion he must not serve 
sin, but must live unto him who died for him, and 
rose again. The time past of his life must suffice to 
have wrought the will of the flesh. There must be 
no steps backward ; no casting of " longing, lingering 
looks behind"; no hankering after former indul- 
gences. He has enlisted under the banner of the 
Lord Jesus, and must be loyal to the great captain 
of his salvation. His heart is not to be divided be- 
tween Christ and the world, but having left Egypt he 
must "henceforth return no more that way." Nay, 
so thorough must the renunciation be that he must 
keep away from everything that has a tendency to 
allure him back, even although, in itself considered, 
it may not be a sinful thing. There is in itself no 
harm in the use of horses. They are noble animals. 
They were, moreover, designed by the great Creator 
to be subservient to the comfort and convenience of 
men. Yet because, in those early days, horses could 
be had in perfection only in Egypt, and because the 
going thither for them might awaken the old longing 
in them for those worldly comforts which had formerly 
beguiled them into, or reconciled them to, their slave- 
ry, the law is laid down for the King of the He- 
brews, and through him for the people themselves, — 
" Ye shall not multiply horses." 

Now, similarly, the Christian is to keep away from 



THE PAST IRREVOCABLE. 



97 



everything that has a tendency to draw him back to 
the slavery of the world which he has renounced. 
No matter if it should he a thing which is in itself as 
harmless as the use of a horse, yet if it bring him 
into associations and alliances which endanger his 
holiness, or weaken the force of his protest against 
sin, he is to keep away from it. He is to look at 
things not in the abstract, but in connection with 
their tendencies and surroundings ; and so as respects 
fashions, amusements, beverages and employments, 
he is to give up those which would bring him into 
dangerous fellowship with the ungodly and the de- 
praved. To make sure of his not entering Sodom he 
must not even "pitch his tent toward" it. To guard 
against his going back to Egypt he must not " mul- 
tiply horses." To prevent his returning to sin he 
must not go in the way that leads to it. Here is a 
principle far-reaching and important, and I am thank- 
ful that it has come up now, when, as it seems to me, 
with returning prosperity in the country we are in 
danger of being sucked back into the world's ways. 
Take it, I beseech you, and act upon it, that you may 
keep yourselves pure and undeflled. 

Thus far I have been dealing with the text in its 
primary and proper application ; but when, in connec- 
tion with the service of this morning, it first suggested 
itself to my mind, its words shaped themselves to me 
as a simple statement rather than as a positive prohi- 
bition ; and, in that sense, they seemed to me to be 
peculiarly appropriate to the closing year. "We have 
come very near the end of another cycle of recorded 
time. Before another Sabbath dawns we shall have 
entered upon a new year, with all its unknown duties, 
responsibilities and trials ; and as we stand to-day 
5 



98 



THE PAST IRREVOCABLE. 



looking back upon the past, there comes out of it a 
voice which says, "Ye shall henceforth return no more 
this way." This I know is an accommodation of the 
words, rather than an interpretation of them, and yet 
it is, in my judgment, important enough to have our 
serious and solemn attention. The past is lived. We 
cannot go back over it again. "We cannot unwind it 
to a certain point, and there start afresh to face the 
same difficulties and meet the same responsibilities as 
those which we have had to encounter. Not even 
the power of Omnipotence can put us where we were 
twelve months ago, or roll back the year that we may 
live it over again. The wheels of Time's chariot have 
ratchets to them, and they move only forward. The 
incidents, opportunities, and events of the past are 
irrecoverably gone, and " we shall henceforth return 
no more that way." 

Now, I can conceive that to some of us there may 
be relief and even comfort in this assurance. The 
experiences through which we have come may have 
been such that we cannot wish for their renewal. The 
path over which we have passed may have been so 
rough, and steep, and dangerous that we cannot con- 
template traversing it again without a shudder. When 
I was in Chamonix, last summer, a friend who had 
crossed the glacier and come down by the "Mauvais 
Pas," on which the iron railing put for the safety of 
travelers had parted from its fastenings in his grasp, 
assured me that he would not go through that expe- 
rience again for all that earth could give. And there 
may be not a few among us who feel just in the same 
way concerning some chapters in our last year's life. 
We are, perhaps, thankful to be through them, but 
we do not wish to repeat them. We feel regarding 
them as one does who has come safely out of a 



THE PAST IEEE VOCABLE. 



99 



terrible railway accident, or who sets his foot on land 
after a dangerous and tempestuous voyage. We are 
glad that we have escaped, but, even although we 
should escape another time, we do not desire to be 
again in the same peril. Take any one of those ter- 
rible catastrophes, so many of which occurred last year 
in this neighborhood, and ask those who came out of 
them unscathed whether, with the assurance of sim- 
ilar preservation, they would relish a repetition of 
their experience, and they will answer, with a solemn 
intenseness, " No ! not for worlds ! " One hears, as 
he replies, the rumble of the falling hippodrome ; 
another sees again the flames of the burning ship, and 
the passengers leaping in wild haste and confusion 
into the waters ; and yet another seems to feel anew 
the waves choking his cry for help. These memories 
give almost a passionate vehemence to their gratitude 
as they cry : " Thank God that is all over ! " For them, 
therefore, there is comfort in the thought that " they 
shall henceforth return no more that way." 

Some, too, may have had such a time of labor and 
anxiety that they are glad to think that it is now be- 
hind them and not to be renewed. If they had known 
of it before they entered on it they would have shrunk 
from it, and now that they have had actual trial of it 
they say that they could not do it over again. They 
are grateful to God that they did not break down 
under the strain, but they have had enough of it, 
and henceforth, whatever comes, they must carry a 
lighter load. There are not a few, also, whose past 
months have been so filled with afflictions that they do 
not hanker after a repetition of them. They have 
hardly ever been out of the sick room ; or they have 
been compelled to look day by day on the gradual 
decay of dear ones whom they have had ultimately to 



100 



THE PAST IEEEVOCABLE. 



follow to the grave ; or the pressure of worldly anxiety 
has been so heavy npon them that the rolling back of 
the year and the renewal of its trials would be to thern 
a thing to be deprecated rather than to be desired, 
And some there are who have had such a fierce fight with 
temptation, and have come out of it, victorious indeed, 
yet with such exhaustion that they cannot but re- 
joice in the thought that now it is all behind them in 
" the irrevocable past." They are glad for the result, 
but they would not willingly go back into the agony of 
the conflict, any more than we in this land would like to 
pass again through those terrible years when North 
and South met each other in hostile array on so many 
bloody fields. So this text, taken as an assurance that 
we cannot re-live our lives, or go again through the ex- 
periences of the past, has in it an element of comfort. 
It is a relief to know that some things are over and 
done with. It is an unspeakable satisfaction to think 
that whatever new trials may be in store for us, those 
in the past have been borne, and are not to be borne 
again. 

But there is another side to the subject, and that is 
full of solemnity, not unattended with sorrow. Eor in 
the past there are many things which now we wish 
had been otherwise. Our afterthought has shown us 
much to which our forethought was blind ; but we can- 
not alter anything now. All is done ; and nothing be- 
hind us can be undone. The past is always seen more 
correctly after it has become the past than it was when 
it was present ; and so, as we take a review of the year 
now nearing its close, we perceive more clearly where 
we have failed, or in what we have been to blame, than 
we did at the time when we were in the thick of the 
things themselves. We mark positive sins now where 



THE PAST IRREVOCABLE. 



101 



we saw perhaps only shrewdnesses or matters of pru- 
dence at the moment. We can tell now where we 
missed opportunities of doing good in the service of 
God and our generation which we scarcely observed 
as we came up to them. And we have to mourn over 
the fact that many of our most sacredly formed reso- 
lutions have been sadly broken. If we could only put 
these things right now ! If we could only take back 
with us the experience which we have since acquired, 
and begin again, say, at the commencement of last 
year, how different would its record be made by us ! 
But that cannot be. "We shall " return no more that 
way " ! What is done is done. Lost opportunities 
cannot be recalled, and no cement of human device 
can mend a broken vow. Ah ! what a sad reflection 
have we here. No matter how tenderly you may now 
feel, young man, you cannot go back and undo the 
follies of these months, nor can you arrest their con- 
sequences ! You cannot recall the profane word ; you 
cannot wipe out the impure act; you cannot undo 
the sins you have committed. The past remains fixed, 
unalterable ; not to be washed out by tears, nor to be 
amended by repentance. 

What then ? What is to be done with it ? I answer, 
that if we cannot cancel it, we can confess the evil 
that is in it, and seek through Jesus Christ forgiveness 
for that. If we please, we can obtain, through the 
great atonement, acceptance with God notwithstand- 
ing our sins. We never can get rid of the fact that 
they have been committed ; but we may be cleansed 
of the guilt of committing them. We may be re- 
ceived by God precisely as if we had never sinned ; 
and so the sting of our guilt may be extracted, and 
the past may cease to be a clog upon our spiritual 
progress. By faith in Jesus we may be enabled in a 



102 



THE PAST IRREVOCABLE. 



very true sense to forget even our sins ; and, tak- 
ing the good out of our experience, we may make 
the future so full of the service of our generation that 
God may seem almost to "restore to us the years 
that the locust has eaten." The reformed drunkard 
can never go back and undo his own intemperance. 
It will forever be a fact that he sinned in that par- 
ticular way. But in Christ he may obtain forgiveness 
and regeneration, and when, like a Gough, or a Bunt- 
ing, he gives his life to the reclaiming of those who 
are now in the degradation out of which he has been 
raised, he has, in a sense, brought good out of his 
evil, and has made even his sinful past subservient 
to his present usefulness. The thief can never make 
it true that he never stole ; but he may obtain forgive- 
ness from the Lord, and may by the Holy Ghost be 
renewed after the image of Christ ; and when, like a 
Jerry McAuley, he gives his days and his nights to 
labor for the conversion of the criminal population of 
the city, he too is showing that even out of the darkest 
chapters of a man's history may be drawn that which 
may make him specially useful to some classes of his 
fellow men. Now what is so conspicuously true in 
instances like those which I have named may become 
true also in the case of all the evils that are behind 
us. We cannot undo them, yet we can prevent them 
from undoing us. We cannot cancel them, but we 
can have them forgiven, and we can, by God's grace, 
secure the wisdom which will enable us to utilize our 
experience in connection with them for our own 
good, and for the benefit of others. When we are con- 
verted from them we may be able by the blessing of 
God to strengthen our brethren all the better from 
our having fallen before them. This is, of course, no 
excuse for any one's committing sin ; neither does it 



THE PAST IRREVOCABLE. 



103 



in any way undo the sin ; but it casts it behind us and 
keeps it from fettering us in our future progress ; yea, 
it makes it even a minister to our usefulness. So, 
even if we cannot go back to repair the past, we may 
gather wisdom from it to make the future more 
blessed. 

And then, turning the thought which the words of 
my text express, we may make it full of admonition 
to ourselves for the future. We are about to enter 
upon a path in which there will be no possibility of 
retracing our steps ; let us be very careful, there- 
fore, where we plant our feet. "We have only once 
to live ; therefore let us live to purpose. The day 
that dawned this morning will never dawn again. 
The opportunities which it brought with it will never 
come again ; and if we fail to fill it with the service it 
requires of us there will be no possibility of return- 
ing into it to repair the mischief. The year on which 
we are about to enter will come only once ; if, there- 
fore, we trifle away any of its hours, or abuse any of 
its days, or miss any of its opportunities, the evil is 
irreparable. So let us seize every moment as it comes, 
and use it as we shall wish we had done when we look 
back upon it from eternity. Remember, the year does 
not come to you all at once, in twelve months at a 
time, nor even in twelve distinct installments of a 
month each ; no, nor yet in three hundred and sixty- 
five separate portions of a day apiece : but in individual 
moments. Do not, therefore, lose the moments in 
thinking that you will secure the year ; but consider 
that the year is to be redeemed by the consecration of 
each moment to the Lord Jesus. Fill every day with 
his service. Meet every duty that confronts you as a 
duty to be performed for him. Face every trial that 



104 



THE PAST IRREVOCABLE. 



comes to you as a trial to be endured for him. Bear 
every affliction that falls upon yon as an affliction to 
be suffered for his sake. Think not that by and by 
you will turn to him, and that will secure life as a 
whole for him ; but let every moment be his, and that 
will be giving him the life. I referred a little while 
ago to the fall of the hippodrome wall, and in this 
connection I am snre many of you will recall the re- 
markable words which were found in the note-book 
of one of the victims of that accident to this effect : " I 
expect to pass through this life but once ; if, therefore, 
there be any kindness I can show, or any good thing 
I can do, to my fellow human beings, let me do it now. 
Let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass 
this way again." Some of you, too, will remember 
the lines of Horatius Bonar in which the same thought 
is expressed : 

" Not many lives, but only one, have we, 
One, only one ; 
How sacred should that one life ever be, 

That narrow span. 
Day after day filled up with blessed toil, 
Hour after hour, still bringing in new spoil. " 

But there is no enforcement of this truth to be com- 
pared with that which comes from the example of our 
Lord himself. These are his words : " I must work 
the work of him that sent me while it is day : the 
night cometh when no man can work " ; and so con- 
stantly did he act out that resolution that when the 
time of the crucifixion arrived he could say not only, 
" Father, the hour is come," but also, " I have glorified 
thee on the earth, I have finished the work which thou 
gavest me to do." For every hour he had his appro- 
priate work, and so the life and the work were finished 
together. And when you ask how that was accom- 



THE PAST IRREVOCABLE. 



105 



plished you may find the open secret in his saying to 
his followers, " My meat is to do the will of him that 
sent me, and to finish his work." On that he lived, 
and therefore for that he lived. His first recorded 
words w-ere these: "Wist ye not that I must be 
about my Father's business?" and to that he kept 
himself until the last. More than food, more than rest, 
yea, better than life itself to him, was the doing of that 
will ; and when we fully imbibe his spirit our lives 
will come to be, like his, rounded into finished com- 
pleteness and filled with blessing and beneficence to 
our fellow men. Ke member that for everything God 
gives you to do there is a day when it can be done, 
and a night when the doing of it is no longer possible : 
so seize the opportunity and do everything in its own 
day. It is told of Dr. Samuel Johnson that he had 
engraven on the dial-plate of his watch these two 
Greek words, vv£> spx^rdi, " the night cometh," in 
order that every time he looked upon it he might be 
stimulated to greater activity by the anticipation of 
death. But, though that use of the phrase is very sug- 
gestive, its reference may be greatly widened. For 
every duty there is a day when it can be performed, 
but if that day be trifled past and the duty left undone, 
there comes a night which says, " Ye shall henceforth 
return no more that way." God give us grace to lay 
this more earnestly to heart, and then when death 
comes we shall not be haunted by the ghosts of neg- 
lected opportunities or embittered by the pangs of un- 
availing regrets. This is the true Christian philosophy 
of life, and I would exhort you to adopt it, and begin to 
act upon it to-day. Eemember that you cannot go back 
a single step to make the past different in the least de- 
gree ; therefore let each step as you take it be in " the 
right way " : a step of which Christ will approve ; a step 
5* 



106 



THE PAST IRREVOCABLE. 



which will bring you nearer to him ; a step which will 
take you into higher experiences, and furnish for you 
a nobler vantage ground for usefulness ; and, as you 
look forward to the commencement of another year, 
let your aspirations shape themselves into this simple 
supplication : 

" Saviour, Christ, I pray thou wilt be near 
To consecrate this newly opening year ; 
may thy love, omnipotent and free, 
Bind every fiber of my heart to thee, 
And every power and every wish complete 
Be laid in full surrender at thy feet." 

December 26, 1880. 



THE VISION OF ELIJAH. 



1 Kings, xix. 12. And after the fire a still small voice. 

" Elijah was a man subject to like passions as we 
are," and at no time are we more convinced of that 
than when we find him here at Horeb. Not long be- 
fore, he had been on the top of Carmel, where he had 
gained a decisive victory over the priests of Baal ; 
but now he has fled from the post of duty, and the 
cruel threat of a vindictive woman has frightened him 
almost into despair. We might well wonder at this, 
and speak of it as a moral incongruity, if not also as a 
psychological impossibility, if we did not ourselves 
know from experience something of those alternations 
of ebb and flow in faith and feeling which seem to be 
inseparable from the excitement of public life in the 
service of the Lord. After such a day as that on Car- 
mel, followed as it was by his earnest wrestling with 
God for the coming of the rain, and his long race be- 
fore the chariot of Aliab to the gates of Jezreel, a 
reaction was sure to come, and, as the hollow corre- 
sponds to the hill, so in one who was by nature so 
intense as Elijah the depression was sure to be ter- 
rible when it did come. Yet, let us not do him injus- 
tice by imagining that he was most deeply distressed 
about his own individual interests. It is true that 
once and again he refers to his belief that he alone 
was left in Israel to be jealous for the Lord God of 
hosts, and that they sought his life. But he valued 
his life only in so far as he could use it in securing 
the triumph of Jehovah's cause, and it was because 



108 



THE VISION OF ELIJAH. 



that seemed to him to be lost that he was so dreadfully 
cast down. His heart was set on the regeneration of 
Israel. He had, as he believed, inaugurated a great 
reform, and he supposed that God would carry it to 
immediate success. But instead of that he found Jez- 
ebel as determined, as unscrupulous, and as cruel in 
her antagonism as ever, and thinking that the conflict 
would have to be fought over again, he became dis- 
pirited, and fled. He expected that from the moment 
of his Carmel victory everything would go right, and 
that the whole people would enthusiastically declare 
themselves, not by an emotional cheer, but by a life- 
long determination for Jehovah ; but when he found 
that this was far from being the case, he gave up the 
struggle, and went into the wilderness. Strange as it 
may seem in one whose great and repeated message 
was " The Lord God of Israel liveth," he forgot to 
take Jehovah himself into the account, and for the mo- 
ment he acted as if the indifference of the people and 
the bitter opposition of Jezebel were mightier than 
Omnipotence. Possibly, too, he had been trusting too 
much in mere power, and so, when he found that it 
had not changed the heart of the nation, he fell into 
despondency. 

Now, such being his state of mind, we cannot but 
admire and adore the wisdom of the course which the 
Lord took with him. When he lay beneath the juni- 
per-tree the angel did not upbraid him, but ministered 
to his wants in the kindest manner, and let him rest 
awhile ; then, after preparing for him a second repast, 
he led him to Horeb, where the very associations of 
the place with the greatest events in the history of 
Moses might preach to him of the majesty and yet the 
mercy of the Most High. Then, when before him, as 
erst before Moses, the Lord passed by, his glory was 



THE VISION OF ELIJAH. 



109 



once again seen to be especially in liis goodness, for 
he was not in the wind, or the earthquake, or the 
fire, but in "the still small voice," to teach his servant 
that, however useful these might be in calling attention 
and in silencing objection, it was not by such " coups 
d'etat " as that on Carmel that the work of regenerat- 
ing Israel was to be accomplished, but by the quiet 
influence of love. There had been much about him of 
the austere and the denunciatory. He had said much 
to terrify and alarm ; but the greatest glory of God 
was not secured by these things. The earthquake, 
the whirlwind, and the fire were but the out-riders of 
the divine majesty, but that majesty itself is " gentle- 
ness," for it is by that he makes men "great." The one 
lesson, therefore, good for all the ages, of this Horeb 
symbolism is that " the kingdom of God cometh not 
with observation," and that the salvation of the world 
is to be wrought out by him of whom it could be said, 
" He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be 
heard in the streets. A bruised reed he shall not 
break, and the smoking flax he shall not quench." 
Not John the Baptist, with his stern denunciation and 
his austere asceticism, but Jesus, with his love, and 
tenderness, and self-sacrifice, is the regenerator of 
humanity ; and though John must always, in some 
form or other, go before Jesus, yet to expect that he 
alone shall succeed in reforming the world is as absurd 
as it would be to anticipate that the plowshare and 
the harrow will of themselves cause the ground to 
produce a harvest without the genial heat of the sun, 
and the kindly rain of the clouds. Now there are 
three respects in which this one lesson may be help- 
ful to us in these days : 

I. In the first place, it reminds us that in the order 



110 



THE VISION OF ELIJAH. 



of God's government the quietest influence is often 
the most powerful. God's greatest works are carried 
on in silence. All noiselessly the planets move in 
their orbits ; " there is no speech, nor language ; their 
voice is not heard " as they sweep on through their 
appointed paths in space. No sound attends the crys- 
tallization of the dewdrops on the myriad blades of 
grass in the summer evenings; and while the crops 
are growing in the fields, so profound sometimes is the 
stillness that all nature seems asleep. "What greater 
revolution can there be than that which recurs at 
every morning's dawn when night quits her " ebon 
throne," and resigns her empire to the king of day ? 
Yet how quietly it is accomplished ! There is first a 
streak of light along the edge of the eastern horizon, 
so faint that you wonder whether it has not shot out 
from that brilliant star ; then a few stray gleams of 
glory, as if the northern aurora had flitted to another 
quarter of the heavens ; then a flush of ruddy beauty 
before which the stars begin to pale, and as we watch 
how one by one these faithful sentinels put out their 
lamps, the sun himself appears, and becomes the 
undisputed monarch of the heavens. But it is all so 
silent that the sleeper is not awakened on his couch, 
and the pale, sick one who has been longing for the 
morning knows not it is there until through the shad- 
owed casement it looks in upon him with its benignant 
smile. In like manner the kingdom of God cometh 
not with observation. There is no crying of lo ! here, 
or lo! there ! Its simple presence is its own announce- 
ment and its mightiest power. 

Now this is a truth which, as it seems to me, we 
are in these days very apt to forget. We have fallen 
upon a generation of fuss, and bustle, and trumpet- 
blowing, and advertising. It would almost seem as 



THE VISION OF ELIJAH. 



Ill 



if many of us believed that we were to take the world 
by storm. We get up excitements in mass-meetings, 
and pass resolutions, and listen to eloquent orators, 
and make thundering plaudits, as if these alone were 
to win the day. We think, alas ! too often, like Elijah, 
that the victory has been gained when we are but 
entering upon the struggle. We have more faith in 
the whirlwind and the earthquake than in the still 
small voice ; and we mistake a momentary out-flash- 
ing of enthusiasm for the celebration of a final tri- 
umph. The sensational is everywhere in the ascend- 
ant. We see it in the extravagance of dress that 
seeks to call attention to itself ; we see it in the domain 
of literature, in the highly colored and hotly seasoned 
romances that circulate by thousands among the peo- 
ple ; we see it in the department of business, in the 
feverish speculations carried on by individuals who 
are ambitious to bottle up the trade of a whole con- 
tinent for their own particular benefit ; we see it in 
the wide field of national affairs, where a " vigorous 
foreign policy " is pursued, and nations are embroiled 
only that a Beaconsfield may wear a garter, and one 
nearer home may have his name kept prominent ; we see 
it in the church, where a high ritual has been adopted, 
as if that would save men's souls ; and that I may 
carry through my enumeration with absolute impar- 
tiality, we see it in the very pulpit, where men too fre- 
quently discourse on every topic but the gospel, and 
sometimes discourse on that under ridiculous announce- 
ments which are meant to draw the multitudes, as if 
that were equivalent to the regeneration of their 
hearts. Surely, therefore, there is something in this 
vision for our sensation-loving life. The Lord is not 
in these noisy and demonstrative manifestations. 
These of themselves will not avail, either for abiding 



112 



THE VISION OF ELIJAH. 



success or real happiness, or extended usefulness. 
The earthquake may shake the ground, the whirlwind 
may rend the trees ; the fire may devour a building, a 
block, aye, even a city, as once and again we have seen 
in recent years, and men's hearts remain unchanged. 
Nothing can reach them but "the still small voice " of 
gospsl grace, for in that especially Jehovah speaks. It 
were well, therefore, that we had less faith in noise, and 
more in that which is the most God-like thing on earth, 
namely, a character molded after the example of 
Christ, and created and sustained by the agency of the 
Holy Ghost. It were well that the voices among us 
were less loud, and the deeds were more pronounced. 
Life is more potent than words ; and character, though 
quiet, is more influential in the long run than any im- 
mediate sensation that flares up and crackles like 
a blaze of thorns, and, like that blaze, dies down after 
a brief season. Better a star than a meteor, however 
brilliant for the moment it may seem ; better a steady 
beacon, like the light on yonder headland, than a danc- 
ing marsh-fire. And if Christians generally would 
seek to act out the principles of the Sermon on the 
Mount leaving all ad captandiim and self-seeking cle^ 
vices alone, they would soon fill the land with an in- 
fluence which would do more for its evangelization 
than all the other agencies put together would effect. 

II. But, in the second place, the lesson which we 
have deduced from our text, taken with its surroundings, 
reminds us that the force of love is always greater 
than that of sternness. Every one has heard of the 
old fable which tells how the sun and the wind strove 
with each other, which of them should first make the 
traveler divest himself of his cloak. The more fiercely 
the wind blew the more firmly the wayfaring man gath- 



THE VISION OF ELIJAH. 



113 



ered his outer garment about him. But when the sun 
shone warmly upon him he speedily threw the weighty 
covering from his shoulders. So antagonism creates 
antagonism. If you attempt to drag me by force, it is 
in my nature to resist you, and I will pull against you 
with all my might ; but if you try to attract me by 
kindness, it is equally in my nature to yield to its 
influence, and I will follow you of my own free will. 
What the hammer will not weld together without fiery 
heat and prolonged labor, the magnet will bring to- 
gether and hold together in a moment. So in dealing 
with men, the mightiest influence is love. 

But there had been little of that in Elijah's dealings 
with his fellows. Indeed, his intercourse with them 
had been but fitful and infrequent. His history is 
one of sudden appearances and mysterious hidings ; 
and up to the time of this vision, at least, though he 
had been thoroughly faithful, he had shown but little 
tenderness to his countrymen. Evermore he had 
come with denunciation on his lips, so that even the 
good Obadiah was terrified by his appearance ; and if 
that were so with him, we cannot wonder that Ahab 
and his partisans were roused by him into more 
furious animosity. There had been enough of the 
terrible in the past. Now he must go back and try 
" the still small voice " ; and especially he must ini- 
tiate a successor, who should be not the similitude but 
rather the complement of himself, and should go 
about in love and fellowship and helpfulness among 
the people of the land. 

But, striking as is the illustration of the truth 
that terror of itself cannot move men to repentance 
which is furnished by the history of Elijah, we see 
the other side of it in its highest manifestation in 
the work of Christ. By love the Lord attracts 



114 



THE VISION OF ELIJAH. 



us to himself at the first, and by love he keeps us 
with him to the last. Law and terrors do but 
harden the heart, but love melts it and makes it 
impressible. See how this came out in the Saviour's 
dealing with the woman whom her accusers dragged 
rudely before him as taken in the very act of sin. 
Her soul was chafing under their harshness. She 
was in a mood to be defiant. Angry words had no 
doubt been the first upon her lips, and she might 
have spoken bitterly to her tormenters. But when 
she saw his benignant countenance and heard his gra- 
cious words, the frown passed from her face, the pas- 
sion disappeared from her eyes, and the determination 
to vindicate herself went out of her heart. Thus she 
was not injured by his kindness, for her sin never 
seemed so hideous to her as it did when he said to 
her, " Neither do I condemn thee " ; and she never 
judged herself so severely as in the moment when she 
received his forgiveness. When sternness has had its 
Carmel victory, Jezebel is as defiant as ever ; but when 
love succeeds, the woman of Samaria becomes a 
preacher cf the gospel. Sternness would have said 
to Mcodemus : " You are a coward ; when you come 
to me in the open day and say in the hearing of all 
men what you have spoken to me in secret, then I 
will instruct you " : and that, most likely, would have 
driven him away for ever. But love told him of God's 
gift of his Son to the world, that whosoever believeth 
in him should not perish but have everlasting life ; 
and the result was seen that day when, at the foot of 
the cross, whence ten of the very apostles had fled, 
Nicodemus was found made great by the Redeemer's 
gentleness. 

Now, here again we have a word in season to 
many among ourselves. If the pastor is " under 



THE VISION OF ELIJAH. 



115 



the juniper tree," and bewailing his want of success 
— wondering why inquirers rarely come to him, 
and crying like Isaiah, "Who hath believed our 
report ? " let him examine and see whether he has 
not been attempting to move men by sternness rather 
than by love. Let him ask himself whether he has 
not been dealing in side subjects away from the great 
center, and forgetting the attraction that is always in 
the cross. Let him inquire whether he has given due 
prominence in his discourses to the love of God, and 
whether he has not been going about among his 
people cold and stern and repulsive, rather than 
tender, affectionate, and winsome in his gentleness. 
Who has not heard of the great mistake committed 
by the first Moravian missionaries to Greenland — how 
they began their labors by seeking to instruct the 
people concerning the being of God and the evidences 
of Christianity, and the future state of reward and 
punishment, and wondered why they saw no fruit, 
and how they were at once enlightened and reproved 
by perceiving the effect produced upon the minds of 
some of the natives by their hearing — or rather, I 
should say overhearing, for it had not been intended 
that they should hear — the reading of the account of 
the sufferings and death of Christ ? " What is that 
you read ? " they said. " Kead it to us again." And 
then there began a great movement among them, 
which resulted in the conversion of multitudes. Ah ! 
yes, does not the temptation of the modern pulpit take 
it just here ? The preacher wishes to be intellectual, 
original, eloquent, and chooses his themes so that he 
may be able to make manifest these qualities. But 
God is not in these, for, though they may awaken 
admiration, they are, after all, cold, stern, marbly 
things and do not reach the heart. Nothing will 



116 



THE VISION OF ELIJAH. 



touch that but " the still small voice " that tells of 
Jesus aud his love. That is the only instrument the 
Spirit will employ in changing a man's nature. Let 
the pastor, therefore, get back to that, and preach it 
with a love corresponding to that of Jesus in his own 
heart, and he will never lack results. Well said the 
good Angel James — and from his own experience he 
had a right so to speak, — " Raise me but a barn in the 
very shadow of St. Paul's Cathedral, and give me a 
man who shall preach Christ crucified with something 
of the energy which the all-inspiring theme is cal- 
culated to awaken, and you shall see it crowded with 
warm hearts ; while in the statelier building hard by, 
if the Gospel be not preached there, the matins and 
vespers shall be chanted to the statues of the mighty 
dead." Let the desponding pastor heed these words, 
and let him try the "still small voice " telling of the 
love of Christ upon the cross ; and though the Jew- 
may call it an offense and the Greek pronounce it 
folly, he will find that it is the power of God unto 
salvation to every one that believeth. 

I say the same thing to the Sunday-school teacher 
who is sad at heart because he seems to see his 
scholars indifferent, yea, even perhaps antagonistic, to 
all his appeals. Have you tried them, my brother, 
with the "still small voice " of gospel love ? Perhaps 
you have been dealing too exclusively in the whirl- 
wind, the earthquake, and the fire. Have they ever 
felt your gentleness ? Do they know you love them ? 
and have you ever told them of Christ's love to them ? 
Have you ever laid you hand in pleading affection 
upon them, and let them see that you are in earnest 
for their salvation ? We have lesson helps nowadays 
in abundance. Every religious newspaper has some 
learned man at work to simplify, illustrate, and en- 



THE VISION OF ELIJAH. 



117 



force the meaning of the passage that is to be the 
theme for the week, and that is all well so far as it 
goes. But never forget that the best teaching help is 
a loving heart ; and if you desire that you must keep 
yourself in close personal contact with the Lord. If 
I wish to make steel magnetic I must bring it to a 
magnet, and, in like manner, if I would win men to 
Christ by love I must first have the love of Christ 
in my own heart. He must magnetize me before 
I can myself become a vehicle of his magnetism. As 
Sister Dora said, " Be very full of the glad tidings, 
and you will tell others." Oh, my fellow laborers, let 
us always remember that all the other matters without 
that will avail nothing ; but that, even without many 
of them, will be made powerful by God. Learning is 
good, illustration is good, accuracy of interpretation is 
good ; but love is best of all : therefore, with all our 
getting, let us get love, and let us avoid continually 
severity and sternness. 

Need I add here that the same principle applies to 
parents in the training of their children in the nurture 
and admonition of the Lord ? Are you disappointed 
in the results of your labors with your sons and 
daughters ? Then let me beg you to examine whether 
you have not been trusting in the whirlwind, the 
earthquake, and the fire, and forgetting the " still 
small voice " ? You say you have tried everything. 
Let me ask you if you have tried gentleness ; and let 
me beseech you to make the experiment of that. Do 
not rudely drive your children from you, but open to 
them the arms of your affection. Make home attract- 
ive to them, and then you may discover that there is 
more power in love to win them to yourself than there 
is in terror to repel them from the evil against which 
you have hitherto been so sternly warning them. A 



118 



THE VISION OF ELIJAH. 



happy home is the best safeguard against the prodi- 
gality of children. 

III. But, in the last place, the lesson which we have 
deduced from our text, taken with its surroundings, 
reminds us that the apparently insignificant is often- 
times really the most important. The " still " voice 
was also " small." It was little in comparison with 
the whirlwind, the earthquake, and the fire, but it 
moved Elijah himself more than they all. He was at 
home with the raging elements. He laid his hand 
even upon the lightnings and they came at his bid- 
ding, saying, Here are we ; and so none of these terri- 
ble things moved him. But the small voice bowed him 
Ctown, " for it was so when he heard it that he 
wrapped his face in his mantle and went out, and 
stood in the entering in of the cave." So sometimes, 
yet, the man who is unmoved by the most awful expos- 
tulations and the most desolating judgments is sub- 
dued at last by the prattling pathos of a little child. 
We must not undervalue agencies because they seem 
to be insignificant. It was said of the Lord himself 
" Can any good thing come out of Nazareth ? " and the 
first apostles were despised as " unlearned and igno- 
rant men." Yet though God used only " the weak 
things of the world," he did confound with them " the 
things which are mighty." The big trees in California 
have sprung from seeds each of which is no larger 
than a grain of wheat; and the river which at its 
source is a tiny tinkling rill over which a child may 
stride, is at its mouth broad enough and deep enough 
to bear a navy on its bosom. Let us not, therefore, 
" despise the day of small things," or say of any agency 
" Is it not a little one ? " A few drops of water rightly 
used may raise a heavy weight ; and even a little child 



THE VISION OF ELIJAH. 



119 



may, by the help of God, be the means of lifting up 
some sinner from his degradation and bringing him at 
once to his Saviour and himself. One does not need 
to be some great one to do good service for the Lord. 
The clarion voice of the great Reformer indeed rung 
out in " half-battle " words over Europe, but ib was 
first that of the poor miner's son singing for bread 
upon the open street ; and the pen of a tinker has 
written a book which has gone into many languages 
and many lands as the power of God to souls unnum- 
bered. Thus often the " small voice " of the obscure 
believer of whom men have scarcely heard has inau- 
gurated a movement that has blessed a multitude. 
Let no one say, therefore, that he can do nothing, for 
still the promise holds, " One man of you shall chase 
a thousand ; for the Lord your God he it is that fight- 
eth for you as he hath promised you." And, again, 
"A little one shall become a thousand, and a small one 
a strong nation. I the Lord will hasten it in its 
time." This touches us all, for, no matter how circum- 
scribed our sphere, or how limited our resources, we 
may have some little thing that we can do which, in 
its place, will correspond to this " still small voice." 
The uselessness of many is perfectly accounted for 
when we say that because they cannot do something 
great all at once they will do nothing at all. Here, 
again, the love of sensation makes its appearance ; and 
it is forgotten that those agencies which are now the 
greatest, and which have in them most of the elements 
of permanence, had their beginnings in the smallest 
things. Each was first a faintly stirring thought in the 
heart of some humble disciple ; then the thought 
grew into desire, and the desire stimulated to a begin- 
ning with such things as he had, and then " the hand- 
ful of corn upon the top of the mountains " grew up 



120 



THE VISION OF ELIJAH, 



into a harvest which " shook like the cedars in Leba- 
non," Wesley never dreamed of anything so great as 
the Methodism of to-day when he began his work ; and 
if we will examine it well we shall discover that almost 
every one of those institutions that are now radiat- 
ing blessings round them had its commencement in 
something which, as contrasted with the high-sound- 
ing pretensions of earthly grandeur, was as insignifi- 
cant as the still small voice of my text after the whirl- 
wind and the earthquake. Courage then, my brethren ! 
Let each go forth and do the little that is at his hand 
with all his might, and God will make that little great. 
Say not that you have no influence, for the tiniest 
child has a power which no human arithmetic can 
reckon. Do not affirm that you have no resources, for 
if you can call God your own you have the wealth and 
power and wisdom of the Infinite behind you. Forth 
then, and begin your work ! It is work which only 
you can accomplish. It is work which the world 
needs. It is work for which the Saviour calls. It is 
work which shall have results stretching into eternity. 
Wait not for some great opportunity : the golden year 
is now ; the accepted time is to-day ; the appointed 
sphere is where you are. Do not quarrel with your 
call as Moses tried to do, or begin to make excuses 
about your weakness and inefficiency. Here is the 
answer to all these objections : " Certainly I will be 
with thee." Go then, like Gideon, in this thy might, 
and the strongholds of Satan will fall before thee in a 
manner as unaccountable to the men of the world as 
was the crash of the walls of Jericho at the blast of 
the rams' horns. May God add his blessing. Amen, 



February 12, 1882. 



THE PLEASURES OP SIN. 



Hebrew xi. 25. Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people 
of Grod than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. 

In this chapter, which is devoted to the heroes of 
faith, no paragraph is more worthy of study than that 
which refers to Moses. It sets before us the motive 
principle of the sublimest life of which ancient history 
can boast, and if I were minded to enter biographically 
upon its exposition I should call you to observe par- 
ticularly the following points, viz. : that the choice of 
Moses was not blindly made in the impulsive ardor 
of boyhood, and while yet he knew not what he was 
required either to suffer or to sacrifice, but maturely, 
when he was come to years, and was in the full vigor 
of his powers ; that it involved the forfeiture of the 
grandest position in the world, and the endurance of 
privation and hardship ; that it was made from a re- 
gard to truth and with firm belief in the rightness 
of God's moral administration and in the certainty of 
a future recompense ; and that it resulted in the attain- 
ment of a nobler sort even of earthly grandeur than 
he could otherwise have reached, with the added ad- 
vantages of the favor of God and eternal glory. But 
for the present my purpose is more limited. As by 
the powerful lens you gather the sunlight into one burn- 
ing spot which sets anything inflammable on fire, so 
this morning I wish to focus the lessons of this pas- 
sage upon the one expression which I have selected as 
my text, if, by any means, their concentrated influence 
6 



122 



THE PLEASURES OF SIN. 



may, through the help of the Holy Spirit, kindle in 
your hearts the fire of piety. My words will, I trust, 
prove salutary to those of all ages, but I earnestly be- 
speak the attention of the young. You, also, my be- 
loved friends, have a choice to make ; nay, whether 
you are conscious of the facfc or not, you are already 
in the actions of every day making a choice whose 
issues stretch throughout eternity. It is, therefore, 
of the deepest importance that you have clearly before 
you the nature and consequences of those things be- 
tween which you have to make your election. I will 
endeavor to make those apparent to you this morning, 
and I beseech you to weigh well, in the balance of a 
calm and candid judgment, the statements which I 
shall make. 

Let it be conceded, then, in the outset, that sin has 
pleasures. This must be true, otherwise men would 
not commit it. In every instance, at least in the out- 
set of the sinner's career, he is drawn toward iniquity 
by the belief that in some way or other it will minister 
to his enjoyment. Sometimes he may have no higher 
aim than the gratification of a prurient curiosity. At 
other times his sin may begin in the impatience of re- 
straint and the pleasure which is felt in overleap- 
ing the barriers which authority or affection may have 
placed before him. Sighing for self-forgetfulness one 
may flee to the maddening cup to secure that object ; 
while another may seek only the wild throb of sensual 
delight. Thus sin, at first, is indulged in for pleasure, 
and doubtless there is a kind of enjoyment in its com- 
mission. I do not deny that, for it would be both 
irrational and absurd to do so ; neither do I ignore it. 
I admit it in the frankest and fairest manner; but 
my question is, What are the characteristics of such 
pleasure ? Take it at its best, and suppose you have 



THE PLEASUBES OF SIN. 123 

the greatest joy that it is possible for sin to furnish, 
of what sort is it, and what is it worth ? My answer is 
that its value is what mathematicians would call a neg- 
ative quality — it has the minus sign before it; that 
is to say, " it costs more than it comes to " ; in the 
equation of life it does not add to, but rather takes 
from, the sum total of your happiness, and leaves you 
less truly yourself than you were before you enjoyed 
it. That you may judge for yourselves I will give you 
the data from which I have worked out this result, 
and that you may better remember them I will put 
them in the form of a few simple propositions : 

I. In the first place, then, take note that the pleas- 
ures of sin are short-lived. In the expressive symbol- 
ism of Scripture, they are like water in a broken 
cistern which speedily runs out ; or like the blaze of 
thorns which crackle and flame up for a little and then 
die down into a heap of ashes ; and the experience of 
all who have indulged in them will corroborate this 
statement. There is in them, at best, only a temporary 
thrill which vibrates for a moment and needs to be 
reproduced again and again. They are not joys for- 
ever. They do not live within a man, sounding a 
ceaseless undertone of happiness in his " secret soul " 
wherever he may be. They cannot be said to give 
pleasure save for the brief season that the excitement 
lasts. Take intemperance, for example. There must 
be some kind of exhilaration in the state of intoxica- 
tion, even though it should be produced by the de- 
thronement of reason and conscience for the time ; but 
how long does that ecstasy continue ? Ask those who 
know best from their own experience, and they will 
tell you that even when they have seemed to secure it 
their joy has passed away from their embrace and 



124 



THE PLEASUEES OF SIN. 



they have been left in deeper misery than before. Nor 
is this true of that sin only. It holds alike of all. The 
pleasure of iniquity in any form is confined to the 
moment of indulgence in it. It is not a thing which 
you can catch and keep for any length of time. You 
have, if I may so express it, to manufacture it anew on 
every occasion, and each time it will be found to be as 
volatile as before. You can only recall the enjoyment 
by repeating the sin ; and with each repetion the same 
discovery of the fleeting nature of the joy is made. It 
is not a fountain sending ever forth its sparkling 
waters ; but it is a leaky pitcher which is empty be- 
fore we can drink out even that which it at first con- 
tained. Do not suppose that this is an exaggeration, 
or that I am straining my very utmost to make out a 
case, and so representing the matter unfairly. You 
suspect the preacher, perhaps, of undue prejudice 
against these enjoyments, and in spite of all his pro- 
testations to the contrary, you are inclined to take a 
large discount from his words. Listen, then, to another 
witness, whose testimony I give in lines which are not 
more exquisitely beautiful than they are strictly true : 

" Pleasures are like poppies spread — 
You seize the flower, its bloom is shed ; 
Or like the snow-fall in the river — 
A moment white, then melts forever ; 
Or like the Borealis race 
That flit ere you can point their place ; 
Or like the rainbow's lovely form 
Evanishing amidst the storm." 

Now these are the words of a man who had no 
great liking for ministers of the gospel, and who, on 
occasion, could hold them up to merciless scorn and 
lash them with the scorpion-scourge of his stinging 
satire. You cannot, therefore, suspect him of any 



THE PLEASURES OF SIN. 



125 



bias in favor of their way of putting things. They 
are, besides, the expressions of one who spoke from 
personal experience. He had indulged in the pleas- 
ures of sin ; he had taken from them all they had to 
give, and yet this is his testimony regarding them. 
But why need I call up the shade of that gifted poet 
here? I make my appeal to yourselves. Have 
you got that amount of pleasure out of sin which 
you expected from it when you began to yield to it? 
You know you have not. Think not to say within 
yourselves that though your little indulgence in it has 
brought you only disappointment, a greater would 
give you satisfaction. Can you change the character 
of sin by adding to its enormity ? Depend upon it, 
the greater the sin the greater will be the disappoint- 
ment. Seek not, therefore, permanent happiness 
where it can never be found. Over every sinful 
pleasure you may write the Lord's own words : " Who- 
soever drinketh of this water will thirst again." It is 
only when we come to Christ, and find pardon and 
peace in him, that enduring happiness can be ob- 
tained. And we receive it from him because he 
works a change upon our inner nature. Sin sends us 
out of ourselves for joy. Jesus gives us enjoyment 
by coming into us and supping with us and we with 
him. Hence the true Christian carries ever his 
pleasure within himself. It does not depend on 
external things ; but, itself an internal thing, it sends 
itself out throughout all his life. It is not an ex- 
perience separate from everything else in his con- 
sciousness so much as an element entering into and 
pervading all his actions and emotions. As the stop 
in the organ is not itself a separate note, but gives its 
own peculiarity to every note which the player sounds 
for the time, so Christ in the heart; is not there dwell- 



126 



THE PLEASURES OF SIN. 



ing apart in a secluded shrine, bnt entering into all 
the experiences of the soul, elevating and ennobling 
them all. Weigh well this contrast, and I think you 
will have no difficulty in deciding which you will 
choose. Pleasure in sin is external and evanescent. 
Christian happiness is internal and permanent. The 
one springs from what the sinner is at the moment 
doing, and disappears when the deed is done ; the 
other results from what the believer is, and is endur- 
ing as his own character; the one is galvanic and 
spasmodic, lasting only while the sin-battery works, 
the other is calm and natural; the one is like the 
lightning — a brief gleam enduring but for a moment ; 
the other is like the light, not only beautiful in itself, 
but bathing everything in its own loveliness. Surely 
there need be no hesitation here. Surely, with these 
facts before you, the choice of Moses will be repeated 
by you and you will forego the pleasures of sin. 

II. In the second place, take note that the pleas- 
ures of sin leave a sting behind, and will not bear 
after-reflection. There is guilt in them, and there 
never can be happiness in contemplating that. Yet 
when the brief hour of joy is fled the guilt is the 
entire residuum of the joy. Have you ever entered 
a banqueting-hall the morning after some high festi- 
val had been held in it, and while yet everything 
remained precisely as the guests had left it at the 
(midnight hour ? The candles burned to the sockets, 
the floor covered with the evidences of the night's 
hilarity, the dishes piled confusedly upon the tables, 
and the decorations which looked so gay in the brill- 
iant lamplight now all withered and disheveled ! 
You can scarcely believe it is the same place as 
that which a few hours before resounded with mirth 



TEE PLEASURES OF SIN. 



127 



and song, or re-echoed with the applause of some 
orator's address. It is deserted ; nay, it is repulsive ; 
and you turn away from it to moralize on the passing 
glory of all earthly things. But such an external 
contrast is nothing to that which is furnished by the 
history of the votary of pleasure when you compare 
what he is in the moment of indulgence with what 
he feels in the hour of reflection. Follow him to his 
chamber. Visit him in the morning, as he is com- 
pelled to confront himself. See his bloodshot eye, 
his quivering hand, his starting, timid, nervous move- 
ment at every sudden sound. Go in, if you can, into 
his inmost feelings, and what is there left after the 
momentary happiness of his indulgence ? He will not 
look into his heart to describe himself to you. He 
dares not do it. There is no companion he more fears 
than himself ; there is no sound to him half so pain- 
ful as silence ; and so he flees back to the society of 
his companions, and seeks in the noise of revelry re- 
newed to drown " the still small voice " of conscience. 
But it will not be always hushed. Sometimes, even 
in the midst of merriment, its upbraidings will come 
as the ghost of Banquo intruded at the royal feast ; and 
often mid the darkness of the night they will drive 
sleep from his pillov^. The great dramatist, in that 
most weird and yet most instructive tragedy to which 
I have just alluded, has shown us how sin " doth mur- 
der sleep," and that the stain upon the conscience 
will not " out," though washed by all the waters of 
the ocean or sweetened by the perfumes of Arabia, 
but we musfc beware of supposing that his represent- 
ation is true only of such unscrupulous ambition as 
leads to murder. What saith the wise King about 
the ruby cup ? " Look not upon the wine when it is 
red, when it giveth its color in the cup, when it moveth 



128 



THE PLEASURES OE SIN. 



itself aright ; at the last it biteth like a serpent and 
stingeth like an adder." At the last! at the last! 
Oh, that men would learn to forecast the future in this 
way, and to think of what must be "at the last ! " 
Eemember that the day is coming when you must look 
back on all you have done and enjoyed. But what a 
retrospect is that of the man of pleasure ! Is there 
on this earth a sadder sight than that of him who 
has lived a life of sinful indulgence looking back upon 
the guilty past and saying : "It had been good for me 
that I had never been born " ? His time wasted, his 
talents abused, his energies prostituted, his conscience 
crying out with a power that gives him only too sure 
a foretaste of the pangs of hell — where is there in this 
wide world a more horrible experience than that? 
And yet that is what the pleasures of sin come to 
even on earth — at the last. And what beyond ? Even 
in that lowest deep there is a lower deep still opening 
to devour him ; but I will not attempt to portray that. 
In the powerful picture of Noel Paton, which he has 
styled the "Dance of Pleasure," you see a motley 
multitude of young and old, and rich and poor, and 
men and women, rushing madly after the queen. They 
care not for each other. In the fury of their selfish- 
ness they strike against each other and trample each 
other down ; yet still they follow on, and she is decoy- 
ing them to the brink of an awful abyss, over which 
each at length must fall. But the painter shows only 
its dark and rugged edge, leaving suggestion to preach 
the warning. So I would only lead you to the border 
of the unseen state, and leave conscience to testify to 
the dreadful perdition which is the end of sin. 

How different from all this is is the experience of 
the Christianly good man. His happiness will bear 



THE PLEASUEES OF SIM 



129 



reflection. It will stand cross-examination. His yes- 
terdays look backward with a smile, and do not, Par- 
thian-like, wound him as they fly. He has had his 
struggle and conflict. Yet, in the happiness which 
he has enjoyed, there has been nothing to give 
him pain. He had pleasure in the experience at 
the time, and he has even more now as he looks 
back. I do not know if there be on earth a more 
beautiful thing than the old age of a Christian who 
in youth dedicated himself to God, and has spent 
his life in keeping that holy resolution. His con- 
science is peaceful, his heart is happy, his future is 
glorious. Which way he looks there is beauty. Behind 
him his whole life seems gilded with the purple splen- 
dor of the setting sun ; around him his children are 
clustering in holy affection ; before him Christ is pre- 
paring him a welcome in his Father's house ; above 
him there is a crown, incorruptible, reserved for him 
to wear. The traveler in Switzerland sees few more 
lovely sights than that which is associated with the 
descent of the Great Scheideck through Eosenlaui to 
Meyringen. The pathway runs now through thickets, 
and now through green pasture-land, inclosed by for- 
est and enlivened by chalets and herds of cattle. As 
you move downward you see little or no splendor, and 
are hemmed in on every side with perpendicular walls 
of rugged rock ; yet, ever as you turn to look behind, 
you are transported with the scene that meets your 
view. In the forefront the pine forest, swayed by the 
breeze, seems bowing its head in lowly reverence to 
the great Monarch of all ; while in the background rise 
the snowy peaks of the "Wellborn and the Wetterhorn, 
tinted with the blush of sunset, and forming a battle- 
ment of mountain grandeur scarcely surpassed by the 
range even of Mont Blanc. Such a valley, I think, is 
6* 



130 



THE PLEASURES OF SIN. 



the life of the Christian on the earth. As he descends 
the way seems commonplace enough. The yodel of 
the herdsmen and the lowing of the cattle are in his 
ears, and he sees nothing that is remarkable ; but 
when he looks behind the retrospect is full of gran- 
deur, and the grandest thing about it is that its gilded 
summits point him to the higher glories of the heaven 
that is awaiting him. "Which, then, will you choose ? 
You cannot altogether escape pain on earth ; but, in 
the case of sinful pleasures, the joy is for the moment, 
the pain is permanent ; in the case of holiness, the 
pain is for a time, while the happiness is everlasting. I 
speak as unto wise men. Judge, therefore, whether you 
should not, from this hour, forswear the pleasures of sin. 

III. In the third place, take note that the pleasures 
of sin are such that the oftener they are enjoyed there 
is the less enjoyment in them. There is a wonderful 
harmony between God's moral law and the physical, 
intellectual, and moral nature of man ; for every viola- 
tion of its precepts does, in the end, evoke the protest 
of all our powers. Sinful indulgence either palls 
upon the taste, or, by its reaction on the system, de- 
stroys the very capacity for continuing in it, in which 
case the craving remains, while the ability to satisfy 
it is gone. This is a part of my theme which might 
be illustrated in a very harrowing manner ; I prefer, 
however, to suggest it thus to you in the simplest way, 
leaving you to think it out for yourselves. The con- 
firmed drunkard has not now the pleasure which he 
had at first in the flowing bowl. The enjoyment has 
gone, and only the slavery remains. But it is so with 
every other sin. Each time such guilty pleasure is 
felt, a portion of the sensitiveness is destroyed, and it 
takes more to produce the same excitement again, until 



THE PLEASUKES OF SIN. 



131 



at last it is impossible to produce it by any means 
whatever. But with the joys of holiness it is quite 
different. The oftener we enjoy them they are the 
higher. The longer and better a man knows Christ 
the more happiness does he derive from him. This 
is a joy which never cloys ; this is a pleasure which 
never palls ; this is a delight which, so far from de- 
stroying the capacity to receive it, only increases that 
the more, so that, at the close of his career, the be- 
liever can say to Jesus what the governor of the feast 
said at Cana, " Every man at the beginning doth set 
forth good wine, and when men have well drunk then 
that which is worse ; but thou hast kept the good 
wine until now.' Here again, therefore, I offer you 
the materials for coming to a wise decision in regard 
to this momentous matter. I am persuaded that the 
longer you think out the point which I have now 
rather hinted to you than amplified before you, the 
more will you be convinced of its truth. Why, then, 
will you choose a pleasure which will burn out of you 
the very power to reproduce itself and reduce you to 
a helpless slavery ? Turn, I pray you, to the Lord 
Jesus, and through faith in him and obedience to 
him you w^'ll enter upon the enjoyment of a happiness 
which shall grow upon you as the sun waxes to its 
meridian height, and which has in itself the elements? 
of the blessedness of heaven. 

IY. Finally, I would have you to take note that the 
pleasures of sin are most expensive. Here I refer 
not to money, though that is by no means unimpor- 
tant ; and when men are inclined to say that they can 
not afford to be Christians, I would like them to sit 
down and calmly reckon up how much their sins cost 
them. But I speak now of the expense of the 



132 



THE PLEASURES OF SIN. 



man's own nature. Tiie word of Gocl says, " Bloody 
men shall not live out half their days " ; and not- 
withstanding the existence of a few exceptions, I 
am persuaded that, in regard to vicious men gener- 
ally, this will be corroborated by observation and ex- 
perience. The sinner is old before his time. His 
physical power is gone. The least illness proves 
serious to him. He can make no such drafts on his 
strength as he was wont to do, or if he attempt to do 
so his life is the forfeit. His intellect has lost its 
freshness. It needs to be whipped up by stimulants; 
and when their influence is removed it sinks into 
lethargy and weakness. His will has become power- 
less. He is swayed one way or another entirely by 
outward influences. His conscience has become 
seared. In a word, he is a wreck. Did you ever look 
upon that wild sea-piece of Stanfield's which he has 
called " The Abandoned " ? The sky is dark and low- 
ering, with a forked flash of lightning shooting athwart 
it ; the ocean is angry, and all over it there lies a 
dreary loneliness that makes the spectator almost 
shudder. The one solitary thing in sight is a huge 
hull, without mast or man on board, lying helpless in 
the trough of the sea. The men who stood by her as 
long as it was safe have been picked up by some 
friendly vessel now entirely unseen, and there that 
battered, broken thing floats on at the mercy of the 
winds and waves. That is sad enough ; but what is it 
after all in comparison with the condition of an aban- 
doned man, abandoned by friends, abandoned by him- 
self, abandoned, it may be, even, like Saul, by God, 
and drifting on the ocean of life all dismantled and 
rudderless, tossed hither and thither by every wind 
of appetite or impulse, and soon to disappear beneath 
the waters ! And what then ? I dare not trust my- 



THE PLEASURES OF SIN. 



133 



self to speak of that. Muse on it yourselves for a 
moment, and then say if you can calculate the cost of 
the pleasures of sin ? Far otherwise is the experience 
of the Christian. His pleasure is not expensive. A 
little goes a great way with him, and the more of 
Christ he knows the more does he learn to use his 
body as a temple of the Holy Ghost, his intellect as 
an instrument of serving God, and his will in choosing 
to run in the way of the divine commands. His faith 
brightens his mental powers, not at first, indeed, but 
through the stimulating influence of the truths which 
he believes. His love strengthens his will, and his 
steadfastness in well-doing softens the sensibility of 
his conscience, making it as quick to the presence of 
evil as the apple of the eye is to the least particle of 
dust. Christian faith, indeed, will not make a genius 
out of a dullard ; but it will make the man nobler, 
physically and mentally as well as morally, than with- 
out it he would have been. So far from wasting his 
energies it economizes them, and haloes them all 
with the joy of its own happiness. Perhaps you 
imagine I have overdrawn the contrast ! Let me, 
therefore, fortify my assertion by a suggestive con- 
trast taken from real life ; and that you may have every 
justice, I summon to testify before you one who had 
ample riches at his command, who wore the coronet 
of a peer, and who beside was dowered with heaven's 
own gift of brilliant genius which secured him world- 
wide renown. He had everything the world could 
give, and yet ere he had finished his thirty-seventh 
year he wrote 'ihus of himself : 

" My days are in the yellow leaf,— 

The flower, the fruit of life are gone : 
The worm, the canker, and the grief 
Are mine alone." 



134 



THE PLEASURES OF SIN. 



Now, on the other side, let me call an English non- 
conformist minister in the time of his old age. He 
was gifted with an eloquence which has rarely been 
equaled and endowed with a loftiness of intellect 
that enabled him to grapple with the mightiest 
themes, but all through life he was a martyr to the 
most distressing physical anguish, so that he had 
scarcely a moment that was free from excruciating 
pain. Yet amid all this he contrived to put into his 
career some of the noblest work which his generation 
saw, and he had a quiet happiness, and sometimes 
even a brimming humor, that were quite remarkable. 
Returning in his later days from spending the evening 
with some friends, his daughter said to him, " Father, 
you did not enjoy yourself much to-night, I fear." 
"Yes," was the reply, "I enjoy everything. I enjoy 
everything " ; and no man who knew Robert Hall 
could doubt that he spoke the truth. Here again, 
then, my dear friends, I place before you the materials 
for coming to a decision on this great question. If 
you wish your lives to resemble the course of the sun, 
rising in beauty, going forth in power, and shining 
more and more unto the perfect day ; if you would 
have your death resemble his setting ; if, like him, 
you would go down in a sea of glory and set only to 
shine on in the firmament of the world beyond, then 
cling to the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ and culti- 
vate that soberness of mind which he enjoys : but if 
you desire to waste your strength, to paralyze your 
intellect, and to destroy your soul eternally, you will 
give yourself to the constant pursuit of " the pleasures 
of sin." There was once a king in Jerusalem who 
sounded every " depth and shoal " of pleasure, and 
drank of every cup of human joy. If there be any 
element of permanent satisfaction in life apart from 



THE PLEASURES OF Sm. 



135 



God he might have found it, for with every possible 
advantage he made a deliberate search after it, and 
still returned with this melancholy result : " Vanity of 
vanities, all is vanity and vexation of spirit." Listen 
to him, my young hearer, if you will not hearken unto 
me ; listen to him, as, worn and weary and wounded 
too, from his lifelong pursuit, he cries back to you, 
half in mocking irony and half in deep, painful, sol- 
emn earnestness : " Kejoice, O young man, in thy 
youth, and let thy heart cheer thee in the day of thy 
youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart and in the 
sight of thine eyes, but know that for all these things 
God will bring thee into judgment with him." 

February 28, 1875. 



AFFLICTION AS RELATED TO LIFE. 



Isaiah xxxviii. 10. — O Lord, by these things men live. 

The song from which these words are taken was 
stricken out of the heart of Hezekiah by a remarkable 
personal experience. Just after the destruction of the 
host of Sonnacherib which had been laying siege to 
Jerusalem he was prostrated by a dangerous malady, 
the result, most probably, of the fatigue, excitement, 
and anxiety which came upon him in connection with 
the defense of his capital from the Assyrian invader. 
At first it would seem that he had little apprehension 
as to the issue of his illness, but when the prophet 
Isaiah told him that his disease was mortal, and 
bade him set his house in order, his heart sank within 
him. He had just escaped a great peril ; the Lord 
had given him a marvelous, yea, miraculous, deliver- 
ance, and so he might naturally conclude that there 
was still before him an earthly future in which he 
might do much for the consolidation of his kingdom, 
for the revival of religion among his people, and for 
the honor of Jehovah. But now all these hopes were 
dashed to the ground ; the cherished purpose of his 
heart was apparently frustrated ; his work was to re- 
main forever unfinished ; and as he thought on these 
things he " turned his face toward the wall, and 
prayed unto the Lord and wept sore." He could not 
understand God's dealings with him. Why had he 
been delivered from Sennacherib if he was thus and 
now to be removed ? To what end had been his in- 



AFFLICTION AS RELATED TO LIFE. 



137 



augur ation of spiritual reforms among his subjects if 
he was to be cut down before they could be carried 
through ? It was as if the bird should be shot in the 
middle of its song ; or as if the fabric of the weaver 
should be taken from the loom before the pattern 
which he was working had been finished ; and so his 
plaint shaped itself into an individual solo in that 
great dirge of Ethan the Ezrahite : " Wherefore hast 
thou made all men in vain ? " 

But as he lay thus tearfully communing with his 
own heart and with God, Isaiah returned to his cham- 
ber with a message of healing assuring him that he 
should go up to the temple on the third day, and 
sealing the prediction by the wonderful sign of the 
going back of the shadow ten degrees on the sun- 
dial of Ahaz. 

So it all came about through the use of the means 
which the prophet had prescribed ; and Hezekiah im- 
proved the first hours of his recovery for the writing 
of this song, which, after pensively rehearsing his 
musings while he lay looking death in the face, breaks 
forth at length into glad thanksgiving for his restora- 
tion to health, and for the addition of fifteen years to 
his earthly life. Yet sincere as the song is, he did not 
conceive that the chanting of that was all the gratitude 
he owed, for he recognized that through his experi- 
ence he had received a new ideal of life, and he made 
it his deliberate resolution to keep that before him in 
all his after conduct. This is the thought that lies 
beneath the words of my text. They refer primarily, 
indeed, to God's promises to Hezekiah while he was in 
affliction, and their performance to him in his restora- 
tion to health ; but they indicate, also, that from this 
time on life had become a nobler, grander, more im- 
portant thing in his view than it had ever been before ; 



138 



AFFLICTION AS RELATED TO LIFE. 



and they carry in them the unexpressed purpose that 
he would thenceforth seek not mere existence, but 
that service of God in which nothing is lost, but every- 
thing that seems to us fragmentary and temporary 
rinds its ultimate completion and its sure permanence^ 
Thus the sentiment of Hezekiah is akin to that of the 
words with which Christ repelled the first temptation 
in the wilderness, " Man shall not live by bread alone, 
but by every word of God ; " and he made the discovery 
of its truth through the discipline of his illness and 
recovery. 

But he is not by any means singular in this respect, 
for wherever affliction has been truly sanctified to a 
man he can say precisely what is here expressed ; and 
that aspect of the subject is important enough to fur- 
nish the theme for our discourse to-day. The con- 
ception and quality of life as affected by the discipline 
of any form of trial — that is the topic for the morning. 

Let us take first the conception of life as a whole, 
and see how that is modified or altered by experiences 
like those through which Hezekiah passed. I enter 
not here into scientific theories of the nature or the 
origin of life. It is my privilege from this place to 
view the matter in a moral and spiritual light, and, so 
regarded, I do not fear contradiction when I affirm 
that they who have had no such critical experience in 
any form have never fully awakened to the difference 
which there is between mere existence and life. In 
sleep there is as real existence as when we are awake ; 
but what a paltry thing life would be if it were to be 
a constant sleep ! Yet there are those among us in 
whom, though their time may be busily occupied and 
though their intellects may be keen and vigilant, the 
spirit slumbers ; and who know as little of life in its 



AFFLICTION AS RELATED TO LIFE. 



139 



noblest sense as if their years were passed in uncon- 
sciousness. They are like the land-owner on whose 
estate there is an undiscovered silver mine, who is no 
richer for his hidden wealth, and who cannot be said 
even to possess it. Nothing has come to reveal them 
to themselves, or to give them any vivid sense of 
the existence of God and their relationship to him. 
Nothing has opened their eyes to the possibilities of 
life that are yet undeveloped in them. One day has 
been to them like another ; and the unbroken mo- 
notony of their experience has fostered in them the ex- 
pectation that things will always continue with them 
as they have always been. Thus they verify the 
psalmist's words, " Because they have no changes, 
therefore they fear not God." But when something 
like that which came to Hezekiah comes to them, then 
there is a thorough, if also a rude, awakening, and they 
discover that they have yet to begin to live. One may 
easily see this exemplified in the votary of pleasure. 
He has merely vegetated through existence. The 
pampering of his tastes, or the gratification of his 
appetites, or the enjoyment of society, constitutes for 
him the chief good, but when an arrest is laid upon 
him by disease, and he is prostrated in helplessness 
and compelled to look God and eternity in the face, 
he is made to feel that he has nothing to show for his 
existence, and that he must stand before the awful 
judgment-seat with not even so much as a handful of 
leaves instead of that which ought to have been the 
fruitage of a life. Ah ! with what earnestness from 
such an one does Hezekiah's prayer ascend : " O Lord, 
I am oppressed, undertake for me"; and how he dis- 
covers at length that in all these things is the life of 
his spirit ; nay, if he desires recovery, it is, like the 
Jewish king, that he may be made to live indeed. At 



140 



AFFLICTION AS RELATED TO LIFE. 



such a time there comes to him a revelation of the 
hollowness of worldly pleasure like that which was 
given to Mrs. Winslow in the ball-room when the 
words of the catechism were flashed into her soul — 
"Man's chief end is to glorify God, and enjoy him for- 
ever " : and that is for him the birth-hour of a new life. 

Or take the case of him whose object in existence 
has been the accumulation of wealth. He has thought 
of nothing but how he may increase his hoard. Suc- 
cess has continually attended his exertions, and per- 
haps, like the fool in the parable, he was saying to 
himself, " Thou hast much goods laid up for many 
years : eat, drink and be merry," when God's hand was 
laid upon him, and he discovered that he could take 
nothing of his property with him into the world be- 
yond. Then he found out that true wealth consists in 
what a man is and not in what a man has ; then he 
saw the relation of the life that now is to that which 
is to come as he never did before ; then he found that 
his occupation in the past had been as foolish as that 
of him who neglects the body for the sake of the rai- 
ment, and he arose with a new ideal for his life — add- 
ing his attestation to the truth of the words of my 
text, " By these things men live ; and in all these 
things is the life of my spirit." In how many instances 
has a serious illness, or a terrible business humiliation, 
or a trying domestic bereavement, when the world 
seemed going from beneath him, and he was left alone 
" in the blank and solitude of things " to face eter- 
nity and God, brought a man to revise his theory of 
life ! He has risen from his couch to seek forgiveness 
for the past from God in Christ, and to consecrate 
himself to the service of his generation by the will of 
God. He has come to regard this earthly life as but 
the portal to the life immortal. He has rectified the 



AFFLICTION AS RELATED TO LIFE. 



141 



perspective of his existence, and has been led to value 
the now for its bearing on the hereafter ; the present 
for its motherhood of the future ; and if sometimes, 
as in the case of a Loyola, the issue has not been all 
unmingled blessing, still it has aroused to thought- 
fulness ; it has changed existence from spiritual som- 
nambulism to waking earnestness ; it has turned the 
attention from external accumulation to internal char- 
acter ; it has opened the ear to the voice of the Eter- 
nal, and stirred the heart with ambitions that rise to 
those things which are above, where Christ sitteth at 
God's right hand ; and if that be true, we may surely 
say — By these things men live. 

II. But passing now to the quality of the life, we 
may see how that, also, is affected by such experiences 
of affliction. And here so many features of that which 
we call character are either evoked or developed by 
trial that all I can do is to make a selection from 
them, and illustrate what seem to me the more impor- 
tant. There is, for example, the element of strength, 
whether in its passive exercise as patient endurance, 
or in its active manifestation as persevering energy. 
The poet has caught the truth which now I mean to 
emphasize when he bids his readers " learn to suffer 
and be strong." He who has known no affliction is 
easily worn out. A little thing puts him out. The 
child, who has had small experience of the world, is 
discouraged by a tiny difficulty, and depressed by a 
light affliction. A little trouble seems tremendous to 
one who has known nothing but prosperity. The old 
sailor who has been all but shipwrecked is not dis- 
mayed by a summer squall, for he says, " I have been 
in worse than this ; " neither does he give up even in 
extremities, for he remembers that he has been brought 



142 



AFFLICTION AS RELATED TO LIFE. 



through before, and he is energetic to the last. Now 
it is the same with life as a whole. You will find the 
strongest characters always among those who have been 
most sorely afflicted. In the home where sudden and 
alarming illness enters it is usually the healthiest and 
hardiest who are the most upset ; and not unfrequently 
they are so distressed as to be practically useless in 
the emergency. They have lost their balance for the 
time. They have no readiness in resource ; no quiet- 
ness of spirit ; no presence of mind ; no control over 
themselves or others. But if there be one there who has 
herself passed through the fire ; who has herself been, 
it may be, for days of suspense on the very border- 
land between the two worlds ; she is equal to the occa- 
sion ; she knows where to look for succor ; and placing 
her hand in God's, she is at once steadied and upheld 
for duty. With inflexible resolution she commands 
herself into control ; sees what is to be done, and has 
it accomplished while others are indulging in the lux- 
ury of tears. Her face is a benediction to the sufferer, 
and her silent energy is stronger for work and for 
helpfulness than the ruddy health of him whose emo- 
tion has overmastered him, and showed how weak he 
is despite his physical muscularity. So it is, also, in 
business. The man who has passed through one panic 
keeps a level head in the next. He knows that loss of 
fortune is not the greatest calamity that can come 
upon him, and he sees through the storm to the calm 
that is beyond. He has fathomed the experience, and 
looked the worst in the face, and that gives him the 
composure and the collectedness which enable him to 
grapple successfully with the difficulties of the hour. 
But the same thing holds in spiritual matters. Luther 
was wont to say that his three great teachers were 
prayer, study, and trial ; and any reader of his life can 



AFFLICTION AS RELATED TO LIFE. 



143 



perceive that if lie had been required in the early part 
of his career to face some of the dangers which men- 
aced him at a later date he would have faltered in his 
course. But through the minor experience he gained 
strength for the severer ordeal ; and so it came about 
that what would have appalled him at the outset 
made almost as little impression on him at the last as 
"the whistling of the idle wind that he regarded not." 
If, then, strength of character be a desirable thing we 
ought to be reconciled to the afflictions by which alone 
it can be developed. They are to the soul what the 
tempering is to the iron, giving it the toughness of 
steel, and the endurance, too ; and if that be so we may 
surely say regarding them — "By these things we live." 

Then, again, we can see that experiences like this of 
Hezekiah have a great influence in producing unself- 
ishness in a man. I distinguish here, however, be- 
tween a short, sharp, critical illness which brings a 
man to the brink of the grave, and out of which he is 
raised almost as if from the dead, and a long life of 
feebleness. I admit that in some cases of the latter 
description there is a tendency to the development of 
selfishness. Every one in the house so habitually 
ministers to the comfort of the confirmed invalid that 
he is tempted to regard such service as a thing of right, 
and is prone to consider himself as the great center 
of the home, who should be thought of before all others. 
I know, indeed, that this is by no means universal ; 
for I have seen those who, while chained to their 
couches for long periods by helplessness, have been 
lying planning hour by hour for the good of others. 
But I acknowledge that there is a danger of selfishness 
incident to such a condition. When, however, a man 
has been in the very grip of the last enemy, and has 
recovered ; or has been within a little of losing all ha 



1U 



AFFLICTION AS RELATED TO LIFE. 



had, and has escaped, you can understand how such 
an experience sends him out of himself. It intensifies 
for him the idea of life as a stewardship for God, and 
he sees the folly of making all the streams of his 
effort run into himself. He reasons thus : " What if 
I had died? these possessions would have been no 
longer mine. They cannot, therefore, be mine in the 
highest sense at all, for that which is mine by inalien- 
able ownership must be mine throughout eternity. 
But if they are not inalienably mine, then they must 
be intrusted to me by God, and I must use them for 
God ; " and forthwith he begins to think of others, and 
of others as having a God-given claim upon himself. 

"What is true thus of possessions, he extends to other 
things ; and so it has come that an experience like 
this of the Jewish king has shaken many a man out of 
himself and set him to think of living for the good that 
he can do to others. Howard's life of benevolence was 
the outcome of a critical illness ; and of multitudes 
more than of him it can be said that they sloughed o£f 
their selfishness in the crucible of trial ; while, again, 
your habitually healthy and comfortable man who 
has known no crisis gives little heed to his fellows, 
and leaves their misery unrelieved. If we knew the 
former histories of all the men who, like the priest 
and Levite, pass misery by on the other side, we 
might discover that they had never known a serious 
affliction, and had never been brought face to face 
with God ; while the good Samaritans who bring the 
needed succor have been, it may be, oftener than once 
at the very portals of that world into which nothing 
but character enters, and where a cup of cold water 
given to a disciple for the sake of Christ shall in 
nowise lose its reward. The man who has really 
seen death comes out of that experience, if at least 



AFFLICTION AS BELATED TO LIFE. K5 

it has been sanctified to him, disenchanted with 
himself, and feeling that his very life is itself a trust 
which God has given him for the service of his gener- 
ation. Thus, affliction of some sort seems to be 
requisite for the production in us of thoughtfulness 
for others ; and recognizing the value of that element 
in character we may say that men who have not 
known affliction have not yet truly begun to live. 

But is only a broadening out of this last remark 
when I go on to affirm that sympathy is born out of 
such experiences as those of Hezekiah. He who has 
passed through trial can feel most tenderly for those 
who are similarly afflicted. This is so true that the 
inspired writer has said even of Jesus, " In that he 
himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able also to 
succor them that are tempted ; " and, indeed, in one 
aspect of it, the very necessity for the Incarnation is 
found in the principle which I have just enunciated. 
To have a sympathizing God we must have a suffering 
Saviour, and there is no true fellow-feeling with 
another save in the heart of him who has been af- 
flicted like him. Nay more, the having suffered like 
another impels us to go and sympathize with him. 
Those of us who have lost little children feel a 
prompting within us to speak a word of comfort to 
every parent who is passing through a similar expe- 
rience. Indeed, it was in connection with an affliction 
of that sort that my attention was first drawn, some 
twelve years ago, to the text of this discourse. I had 
just a few weeks before buried a beloved daughter, the 
light of the household, and the darling of all in it, and 
had gone to attend a meeting of Synod where an hon- 
ored minister, who had been through the same trial 
oftener than once before, came up to me and took me 
by the hand, and said to me, with a reference to my 
7 



146 



AFFLICTION AS BELATED TO LIFE. 



sorrow, " By these things men live." That was all, 
but each successive year since then has given a new 
verification of his words, for oh ! how often in the 
interval have I been enabled to comfort others with 
the comfort with which I have been comforted of 
God, and the efficacy of the consolation lay largely in 
the fact that it was offered by one who had proved its 
value for himself. "We cannot do good to others save 
at a cost to ourselves, and our own afflictions are the 
price we pay for our ability to sympathize. He who 
would be a helper must first be a sufferer. He who 
would be a saviour must somewhere and somehow have 
been upon a cross ; and we cannot have the highest 
happiness of life in succoring others without tasting 
the cup which Jesus drank, and submitting to the bap- 
tism wherewith he was baptized. Every real Barnabas 
must pass to his vocation through seasons of personal 
sorrow, — and so, again, we see that it is true that " by 
these things men live." The most comforting of 
David's psalms were pressed out of him by suffering ; 
and if Paul had not had his thorn in the flesh we had 
missed much of that tenderness which quivers in so 
many of his letters. 

But this train of thought leads naturally up to my 
last remark here, namely, that experiences like Heze- 
kiah's have much to do with the usefulness of a man's 
life. Usefulness is not a thing which one can com- 
mand at will. It is, in most cases, the result of a dis- 
cipline ; and is possessed by those who in a large de- 
gree are unconscious that they are exercising it. It 
depends fully more on what a man is than on what he 
does, or, if it is due to what he does or says, that 
again, is owing very much to what he is, and what he 
is now has been determined by the history through 
which he has been brought. You see that in the case 



AFFLICTION A3 RELATED TO LIFE. 



147 



of a physician. His experience goes far more to the 
making of him than his college training has done. 
That, indeed, if it has been worth anything, has mainly 
taught him how to utilize his experience ; and the 
difference between one medical man and another de- 
pends very largely indeed on the history and practice 
of each. Now it is so, also, in spiritual things. The 
helpfulness of another to us in the prosecution of the 
Christian life is determined more by his personal ex- 
perience than by his intellectual pre-eminence, and thus 
it happens often that an humble and largely disciplined 
disciple, or what we call an " exercised" Christian, may 
be more useful to us than an eloquent preacher. Here, 
too, as it seems to me, is the secret of the difference 
between one man and another in the matter of pulpit 
power. Few things, indeed, are so humiliating to those 
of us whom God has called to public positions in his 
church as to hear anatomical critics ask, " "What is the 
secret of his power ? " One will say that it is in his 
voice ; another that it is in his manner ; another that 
it is in his aptitude of illustration ; another that it is in 
his personal appearance ; and still another that it is in 
his literary taste and simplicity of style ; while some, 
perhaps, will resolve it all into that vague thing which 
they call magnetism, and some into his earnestness. 
But scarcely one will think of the history that is be- 
hind the sermon, or of the experience out of which it 
has been born : but there, in the discipline through 
which God has brought him, and which no other 
man can acquire by any effort, is the hiding of his 
peculiar power ; there is the root of his spiritual use- 
fulness. The discourses which find others are those 
which have been struck out of him by the crises 
through which God has brought him ; and that same 
discipline having sent him into his own soul has given 



148 AFFLICTION AS BELATED TO LIFE. 

him in the knowledge of himself a key to the hearts 
of others, so that before they know it he has entered 
them and taken possession of them for his Lord. 
"When one reads Robertson of Brighton's life he 
comprehends the power of his discourses ; and this is 
a power which no theological seminary can develop, for 
it is conferred by God through personal discipline. It 
is the power of the heart rather than of the head ; the 
power of character rather than ability ; the power of 
experience rather than of rhetoric. Ezekiel was made 
a sign to the people through the loss of his wife ; and 
the usefulness of many men, both in the pulpit and 
out of it, has had its roots in similar discipline. Ah ! 
it is a costly price, and yet " by these things men live." 

But, not to dwell longer on the effect produced by 
such experiences on different qualities of character, I 
must add one word of caution. It is not every afflic- 
tion that works out such results ; and whether any 
trial will do so or not depends entirely on the spirit 
in which it is borne. Only they who, like Hezekiah, 
turn to God under it receive blessing through it. A 
man may be sent to Jabbok, and feel himself in utter- 
most solitude, but unless while he is there he wrestles 
with the Lord it will not be to him Peniel, and he will 
go away from it less serious and spiritually impres- 
sionable than he was before. One cannot be, after 
such a crisis, precisely as he was before it came upon 
him. If he turn to God under it, he will be the better 
of it, for it will give for him a new significance to life, 
and work out in him some quality of character in 
which before he was deficient. But if he is not the 
better for it he will be the worse. If he does not apply 
to God for deliverance out of it or grace under it he 
will be hardened by it, and be more indifferent to the 
great spiritual realities than ever. "When, therefore, I 



AFFLICTION AS RELATED TO LIFE. 149 

say as the outcome of our morning's meditation not 
only that an experience like this of Hezekiah is a bless- 
ing, but also that the absence of such an experience 
in a man's history is the greatest of all misfortunes, 
my words are to be taken with the qualification that 
under it he draws near to God. That is the hinge 
on which it all turns. An affliction so borne will 
always bring forth fruit in giving a new quality to our 
character, and a new power to our life ; but if we refuse 
to acknowledge God in such a crisis we shall come out 
of it cold, callous, impassive, and mayhap defiant ; and 
it will be a curse to us, and not a blessing. 

April 18, 1880, 



OPPORTUNITIES AND THEIR LIMIT. 



Jeremiah xviii. 3, 4. 3 Then I went down to the potter's house, 
and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels. 

4 And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hands of 
the potter : so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the 
potter to make it. 

Jeremiah xix. 1, 2, 10, 11.— 1 Thus saith the Lord, Go and get a 
potter's earthen bottle, and take of the ancients of the people, and of 
the ancients of the priests. 

2 And go forth unto the valley of the son of Hinnom, which is by 
the entry of the east gate, and proclaim there the words that I shall 
tell thee. 

10 Then shalt thou break the bottle in the sight of the men that go 
with thee. 

11 And shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord of hosts : Even 
so will I break this people and this city, as one breaketh a potter's 
vessel, that cannot be made whole again : and they shall bury them 
in Tophet, till there be no place to bury. 

The chapters from which these two texts are taken 
should be read and studied together if we wish to get 
a complete view of the one subject of which they both 
treat. They should be set also in the framework of 
the history to which they originally refer, in order 
that through the interpretation of them which that 
supplies we may discover the principles of permanent 
importance which underlie them, and of which the 
case to which the prophet applied them was only a 
single illustration. Some little attention may be re- 
quired to secure this intelligent apprehension of these, 
I fear, too sadly neglected portions of sacred Script- 
ure, but the result will be fraught with instruction 



OPPORTUNITIES AND THEIR LIMIT. 



151 



and admonition to us all, and will more than repay 
any effort that may be needed for its attainment. 

In the former of the chapters Jeremiah tells us that 
at the suggestion of the Divine Spirit he went to a 
potter's house and saw a workman moulding a vessel 
upon the wheels. Even as he was looking, something 
went wrong with the clay that was under the potter's 
hand. It was " marred." He discovered something 
in it which made it unfit for the purpose for which he 
had originally intended it ; but he did not throw it 
aside on that account, for it was still soft and plastic 
to his touch, and so he made it into another sort of 
vessel — less honorable and less valuable, it may be, 
but yet useful — into which his practiced eye saw that 
it might still be turned. Here we have, therefore, a 
work still in process — still, as I may say, in the clay 
— and the suggestion is that so long as that impres- 
sionable condition lasts, if the result first aimed at 
is not gained, another, though perhaps a lower, may 
yet be attained. 

In the latter of the chapters the prophet narrates 
that he was commanded to take a potter's bottle — not 
now, you observe, in the formative and easily-molded 
state of clay, but fully baked and hardened — and 
break it in pieces in the sight of certain persons whom 
he was to lead out to the valley of Hinnom that they 
might be witnesses of his action. "We have here, 
therefore, not a manufacture in process, but the de- 
struction of a finished article which had proved to be 
a failure. The clay had been made into a bottle, and 
the bottle had been hardened in the fire. Its quality 
as a vessel was irrevocably fixed ; and as it had turned 
out to be good for nothing, it was broken in pieces. 
It was no longer possible to make it into something 
else, and therefore no further pains were taken with 



152 OPPORTUNITIES AND THEIR LIMIT. 



it, but it was shivered into fragments which were cast 
on the refuse heap that had accumulated in the un- 
clean Tophet. 

When we put these two symbolical messages of 
the prophet together thus, it is impossible to evade 
the conclusion that there is a most intimate connec- 
tion between them, and we begin to get a glimmering 
of the spiritual truth that is beneath them. But when 
we take the application which Jeremiah makes of 
each, there is no longer any room for doubt upon the 
subject. Listen to these words connected with the 
first : " O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this 
potter ? saith the Lord. Behold, as the clay is in 
the potter's hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house 
of Israel. At what instant I shall speak concerning a 
nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and 
to pull down, and to destroy it ; if that nation against 
whom I have pronounced turn from their evil, I will 
repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them. 
And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, 
and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant 
it ; if it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, 
then I will repent of the good wherewith I said I 
would benefit them." Then take the following in re- 
lation to the second : " Thus saith the Lord of hosts : 
Even so will I break this people and this city, as one 
breaketh a potter's vessel that cannot be made whole 
again ; and they shall bury them in Tophet, till there 
be no place to bury." Now put these together and 
you get the inference that the clay in the one case 
and the bottle in the other represent the house of 
Israel — each, however, in a different stage of develop- 
ment. The clay denotes the educational period, when 
the national character was as yet only in process of 
being formed ; the bottle symbolizes the hardened 



OPPORTUNITIES AND THEIR LIMIT. 153 

determination into which that character ultimately 
settled ; while in the making of the clay into another 
vessel and in the breaking of the bottle, we have set 
forth the difference of the divine treatment of the 
people in these two conditions. But (as I have often 
reminded you, when expounding other symbolical 
passages of the word of God), we cannot get a simile 
that will hold in every particular, and here there is 
one important distinction between the material em- 
blems and the moral beings whom they are used to 
typify which must never be overlooked. Clay is an 
unconscious piece of matter, and a bottle is a dead, 
senseless, irresponsible thing. But the Israelites 
were spiritual and responsible beings, dowered with 
free agency, and having liberty to choose what they 
would make of themselves. The marring of the clay 
in the hands of the potter, therefore, must not be 
misunderstood. Literally, that is not a thing for 
which the clay is responsible ; nor would any one 
blame a bottle for being worthless. But as here 
employed these things are to be taken as denoting 
results produced by the perversity of the people rep- 
resented by the clay and the bottle. The marring 
of the lump upon the wheel signifies no mere un- 
avoidable accident in the history of the nation, but 
rather a deliberate purpose on the part of the people 
to throw off their allegiance to Jehovah. They could 
never do that in any degree without correspondingly 
injuring their ultimate future. But if, through the 
expostulations of the prophet, they repented, and 
submitted themselves in willing obedience to the 
Lord's commands, then they would still remain plas- 
tic as clay; and though the higher ideal had been 
lost by them, God would shape another future, lower 

yet still useful for them, as it pleased him, and some- 

7* 



154 



OPPORTUNITIES AND THEIR LIMIT. 



thing good would yet be made of them for his glory 
and for the welfare of men. On the other hand, if in 
spite of all en treaty they hardened themselves into 
defiant and stubborn rebellion against Jehovah, they 
would thereby pass from the soft, yielding, and easily 
moldable condition of clay upon the wheel into the 
hard, fixed, and unimprovable state of a fully-baked 
vessel which did not answer its purpose ; and as noth- 
ing else could be made of them, they would be cast 
out as worthless, and consigned to irremediable de- 
struction. 

Such seems to be the significance of these two sym- 
bols ; and this view is entirely corroborated by the 
history to which they were primarily applied by 
Jeremiah. The Jewish nation was at this time in a 
most deplorable condition. Originally intended by 
Jehovah to be a peculiar people, an holy nation, a 
kingdom of priests, and the witness of truth to the 
world at large, it had refused to rise to that high voca- 
tion, and had chosen to become like the neighboring 
states, in idolatry, in sensuality, in covetousness, 
and in unrighteousness. The clay " was marred upon 
the wheel." It had, therefore, to be subjected to 
another treatment. Never, indeed, could it fill in the 
noble outline which had at first been marked for it ; 
but still there might be yet an outcome of good if the 
people would but submit themselves to God and re- 
turn to him. And many of them — indeed most of 
those who were carried into captivity to Babylon — 
did thus return to him. They were the " soft ductile 
clay," and God " made it another vessel." The na- 
tion, indeed, never was again as it had been in its 
palmy days, or as it might have been if its citizens 
had been true to God all through. Its kingly power 
never again emerged ; the ark of the covenant was no 



OPPORTUNITIES AND THEIR LIMIT. 155 



longer in its temple ; much of the old glory was hope- 
lessly gone. Virtually it had to begin anew and on a 
lower level. But, though it did not attain the lofty 
role which had at first been intended for it, there was 
still a great future in store for it, for the returned ex- 
iles raised a platform on which at length Messiah was* 
to appear, and the story of the struggles of the people 
under the Maccabees was to be full of inspiration to 
multitudes in every after generation. But there were 
others among the people who would take no advice and 
heed no entreaty. These were they who sided with 
the rebels against Babylon, and would not accept God's 
discipline. They were hardened in their obstinacy 
and stubborn in their impenitence. They were the 
misshapen vessel of earthenware, for " they had re- 
jected God's loving chastisement, had refused his 
mercy, and persisted in their sins." So upon them 
came the frightful calamity of the siege of Jerusalem, 
described in this nineteenth chapter of Jeremiah's 
prophecies, when God " broke them with a rod of 
iron and dashed them in pieces like a potter's vessel." 

Nor were these the only illustrations furnished by 
the Jewish nation of this law of the divine administra- 
tion. We see the same thing repeated in connection 
with the Saviour's personal ministry in Palestine. 
All through these three years and a half, the clay, 
though marred, was still upon the wheel, and if there 
had been any repentance among the people, or any 
willinghood among them to receive Jesus as the Mes- 
siah, they might have been formed into yet another 
vessel, and risen once more into prominence among 
the nations. But they elected to reject Jesus and put 
him to death upon the cross, and thereby they turned 
the clay into a worthless piece of pottery too vile for 
ornament, too ill-made for use, and too hard to be re- 



156 



OPPORTUNITIES AND THEIR LIMIT. 



molded, — only fit, therefore, to be cast out and broken 

into fragments. 

But now, having a firm grasp of the meaning of these 
two symbolic prophecies in their primary relation to 
the Jewish nation, let us distill from that the principles 
of permanent importance which it contains. They are 
the following : First, that there is a divine ideal pos- 
sible for every man under the gracious providence of 
God ; second, that this ideal is attainable by him only 
through implicit faith in God, and willing obedience 
to all his commandments ; third, that if this faith 
and obedience are refused by a man, his history is 
marred, and it is no longer possible for him to become 
what otherwise he might have reached ; fourth, that 
if the man should repent and return unto the Lord, he 
may still, through the rich forbearance of God, rise to 
a measure of excellence and usefulness which, though 
short of that which was originally possible to him and 
intended for him, will yet secure for him the approval 
of the Most High ; and, fifth, that if the man harden 
himself into persistent rejection of God, and show 
stubborn impenitence, there comes a time when im- 
provement is impossible, and there is nothing for him 
but " everlasting destruction from the presence of the 
Lord, and from the glory of his power." The mere 
repetition of these propositions is enough to show you 
that they carry us into that region of mystery which 
enshrouds the great questions of God's sovereignty 
and man's free agency. But I do not propose at this 
time to enter into that domain. These two truths are 
the ultimate boundaries of human thought on all 
moral questions. We cannot get rid of either, and 
though to our finite minds they seem utterly inconsist- 
ent with each other, yet we must hold them both in ap- 



OPPORTUNITIES AND THEIR LIMIT. 157 



parent antagonism, believing that full knowledge, if it 
could be attained by us, would discover their harmony. 
No matter where we begin in our cogitations we shall, if 
only we go far enough, come up against one or the other 
of them, and then all farther progress is arrested. If 
we confine our ' attention to the divine side, we shall 
find ourselves at length hemmed up by the purpose of 
God ; if again we restrict our thoughts to the human, 
we shall reach our ultimatum in the free agency of man. 
This is the inevitable result of our limitation as creat- 
ures, for only God can fully comprehend God. But 
while that is most true, the principles which I have 
deduced from the two symbolic prophecies of Jeremiah 
are exceedingly valuable as serving to show us that 
there is nothing in the human freedom that subverts 
the divine sovereignty ; and that there is nothing in 
the manner in which God's sovereignty is maintained 
that destroys human freedom, or weakens human re- 
sponsibility. God is superintending and overruling 
all, as the potter is manipulating the clay. Yet man 
has the choice whether or not he will submit himself 
to God, even as the Israelites, who were symbolized by 
the clay, had the liberty to determine whether or not 
they would serve Jehovah ; and it is to me a most inter- 
esting thought that the question " O house of Israel, 
cannot I do with you as this potter ? " was put by God 
not to terrify the people by the assertion of his power 
to destroy them, but rather to encourage them to re- 
pentance by assuring them that if they returned to 
him he could still make something valuable out of 
them, even as the workman framed a serviceable vessel, 
after all, out of the clay which had become marred 
and unfit for his original purpose. But leaving all 
abstract discussions, let us attend briefly to each of 
the propositions which I have enunciated. 



158 OPPORTUNITIES AND THEIR LIMIT. 



I. There is a divine ideal possible for every man. 
God has not made any man simply for destruction. I 
know that there are many who so misrepresent him ; 
but there is no countenance given to any such view in 
the sacred Scriptures. He has an archetype or pattern 
before him, which it is possible for each man to reach. 
"What that is may be, indeed must be, different for 
each. There was one ideal possible for Egypt, an- 
other for Assyria, and another for Babylon, with their 
respective privileges and opportunities, and quite an- 
other for Israel, with its pre-eminent advantages. 
These other nations were not required to be every- 
thing that the Jewish people ought to have become. 
God is not unrighteous to demand equal attainments 
from unequal gifts. He gives to one five talents, to 
another two, and to another one ; but he does not look 
at last for ten from each of them. And what is true 
thus of nations is true also of individuals. He has one 
ideal for those who, like ourselves, are favored to the 
full with gospel blessings ; and another for such as 
have not our original advantages. But there is a pos- 
sible result that shall be worthy of his approval for 
each ; and that each may reach that, has been his 
original and primary design in the creation of each. 
I enter not now into the question why there are these 
original inequalities in the case of men, for I do not 
think any one can solve that, and I content myself 
with simply marking their existence, as connected with 
the ideal that is possible for each. That ideal is not 
the same for all, but it is in each appropriate to and 
in correspondence with the environment in which he 
is placed. 

II. This ideal is to be attained by a man only 
through implicit faith in God and willing obedience 



OPPORTUNITIES AND THEIR LIMIT. 



159 



to his commands. It was a profound saying of a great 
philosopher in regard to physical things that " we 
command nature by obeying her." He meant, for ex- 
ample, that by complying with the requisite conditions 
in electricity;, we can command that agent to do our work. 
And similarly we may affirm that we command God 
by obeying him. I should hardly have dared, I con- 
fess, to use that expression if I had not found in the 
writings of the ancient prophet such words as these, 
" Concerning the work of my hands command ye me." 
But you are, I hope, in no danger of misunderstanding 
my meaning. By obeying God we secure his approval 
and co-operation with us and in us by his Spirit for 
the attainment of that which he has designed to make 
us. Here again, however, we are to bear in mind that 
the commandments of God do not mean the same for 
all men. Those who as yet have never received the 
books of revelation have still certain commandments, 
or what Paul calls a law, written in their hearts ; and 
if they obey these they will rise to the divine ideal 
for them. Whether any of them have ever done so I 
dare not affirm, but that it is possible for them to do 
so seems to me evident : and if they do, they will be 
judged according to their light, and approved for what 
they have accomplished. But we, who have in our 
hands the living oracles of God, need not spend time 
in speculation about them. It would be much more 
profitable for us, and becoming in us, to improve our 
own opportunities. Now here we are told that we shall 
reach that which God has designed for us through 
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and implicit submis- 
sion of our intellects, and hearts, and wills, and lives 
to him. The great question for us, therefore, is 
whether or not we have thus given ourselves up and 
over to his service, for only thereby can we rise, each 



160 



OPPORTUNITIES AND THEIR LIMIT. 



in his own place and after his own pattern, to what 
Paul has called " the measure of the stature of the 
fullness of Christ." Ah! when we try ourselves by 
this test, must we not all admit that we have fallen 
below the divine ideal for us, or, as the great apostle 
has expressed it, " that we have come short of the 
glory of God," that is, that we have come short of 
giving such an illustration of the wisdom and love of 
God in the fashioning of our characters as otherwise 
might have been seen in us ? 

III. This brings me to the third proposition, for- 
merly enunciated, namely, that if such faith and obe- 
dience are refused by a man, that man's history is 
marred, and it is no longer possible for him to be- 
come what otherwise he might have been. That 
is seen by us every day in common life. The youth 
who trifles through those years which ought to have 
been devoted to education, may possibly, as the say- 
ing is, " take himself up " in after days, but he can 
never attain such a position as might easily have 
been his if he had been diligent all through the 
formative period of early life. And the same thing 
holds morally. Sin mars the divine ideal for a man. 
It deprives him of the full advantage of the skill and 
help of God in the development of his character. It 
is no longer possible even for God, in consistency with 
the moral nature of his government, to make of him 
all that was originally attainable by him. Look, for 
example here, to such men as Balaam, and Saul, and 
Judas, and you will see how true it is that sin mars 
the realization of a noble and possible future. What 
a character Balaam might have become, with his pro- 
phetic insight and his poetic soul, if only he had kept 
true to his convictions ! but the clay was marred, and 



OPPOETUNITIES AND THEIR LIMIT. 161 



the man who might else haye been a noble example, 
now serves only as a beacon of warning. How pos- 
sible, too, it was for Sanl to have been almost a model 
king ! He had great kindness shown him by Jehovah. 
Samuel, also, was drawn in quite a wonderful manner 
to him, and as we read the history of his prowess in 
the matter of Jabesh-gilead, we feel that he only just 
missed becoming great, and missed it because he pre- 
ferred his own way to God's. And Judas, too : what 
might he not have been as an apostle, with all his 
privileges and opportunities ? But the clay was marred 
under the divine potter's hands, and because he chose 
the things of the world in preference to obedience to 
Christ, he who might have been a son of consolation 
became the son of perdition. Ah ! how many among 
us are at this moment, by their characters and posi- 
tions, living illustrations of the truth that if we refuse 
to obey God's commands and receive Jesus as our only 
Redeemer, Lawgiver and King, we make the loftiest 
life impossible for us ! God help us to lay this solemn 
thought to heart. 

IY. But now, fourthly, if the man should repent and 
return to the Lord, he may yet, through the rich for- 
bearance of God, rise to a measure of excellence and 
usefulness, which, though short of that which was 
originally possible to him and intended for him, will 
secure the approval of the Most High. This is the 
gem thought of these two chapters. If, having dis- 
covered the cause of our failure in our sins, we turn 
from these and give ourselves up to God, he will yet 
make something out of us worthy of himself and full 
of joy and encouragement to ourselves. Observe 
again, I beseech you, that question, "O house of 
Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter ? " and re- 



162 



OPPORTUNITIES AND THEIR LIMIT. 



member it was meant to encourage the people to go 
back to God, with the assurance that it was still pos- 
sible for him to make something good out of them. 
But they said (look at the 12th verse of the 18th 
chapter) : " There is no hope ; but we will walk after 
our own devices, and we will every one do the imagina- 
tion of his evil heart." Ah ! that is a true word of 
Paul, "We are saved by hope." These Jews had no 
hope, and therefore they went farther and farther 
down. Jeremiah tried to rekindle hope in them by 
this illustration of the potter, but it was in vain; 
they refused to receive his message, and hardened 
themselves into uttermost obstinacy, — and then came 
destruction. Now let me hold up, clear and distinct, 
this hope to sinners before me this morning : There 
is no need to despair yet. If you are willing to re- 
turn to God in Christ, he is able to work out in you 
and bring out through you something of nobleness and 
holinGss. There will always be in you and about 
you, indeed, the marks of your former lives ; but God 
has you yet upon the wheel, and he will make you 
" another vessel as it pleases him." Think here of 
such a case as that of Manasseh. The son of the good 
Hezekiah, he might, had he walked steadily in his 
father's footsteps, have become one of the noblest of 
Jewish monarchs. But he gave himself up to idolatry 
and sank into the most debasing sins. At length 
the judgment came and he was carried off to Babylon. 
There, in thought and prayer and penitence, he re- 
turned to God ; and the Lord, making another vessel 
of him, restored him to Jerusalem and his throne. 
He never became what had been at first possible for 
him, but he did become another and a better man ; 
and his name stands out on the historic page as a strik- 
ing proof that even although one has gone far astray 



OPPORTUNITIES AND THEIR LIMIT. 



163 



he may yet, through God's grace and by returning 
unto him, become a worthy man and be finally ac- 
cepted. But why need we go so far back as Manas- 
sen's days for illustrations of this truth ? We may 
find many in our own generation. Probably, even as 
I speak, each of you has some such case with which 
he is acquainted recalled vividly to his remembrance. 
There may even be some here whose personal ex- 
perience confirms my words. I think of John Newton 
in the pulpit, doing a noble work for God and men 
in spite of his early sins and shameful habits. He 
was never such a man as he might have been had he 
been all through his days truly devoted to his God, 
but he was a good and useful man after all, saved by 
grace through faith in Christ and repentance unto life. 
I think of some, not far away from us, who, after years 
in prison, have found their way through Christ back 
to God, and are now — though the mark of the old life 
may be seen yet very clearly stamped upon their 
countenances — living earnestly for the glory of God in 
the salvation of men. I think of others, long enslaved 
by intemperance, and even yet feeling degraded at the 
thought of what but for it they might have been, but 
now emancipated from the thraldom of habit, by the 
power of the Holy Ghost, through faith in Jesus, and 
living mainly " for the good that they can do." And 
with such cases before me, I proclaim the willingness 
of God to save all who penitently turn to him, and 
to make them vessels of mercy which he will " prepare 
for his glory." Let no one go away saying there is 
no hope. If there is the least prompting within you 
to return — though it may be faint as the spark in the 
smoking flax, or feeble as the strength in the bruised 
reed — that is an evidence that you are not yet hard- 
ened into impenetrability ; and if you yield to its im- 



164 



OPPORTUNITIES AND THEIR LIMIT. 



pulse there is One who will receive you and renew 
you, and make you yet noble and honorable before 
hiin, a trophy of his grace ; aye, it may be — let me 
carry out the figure of my texts— a cup in which he 
will hold the living water of his refreshment to the 
lips of many weary ones among your fellow-men. 
Return, then, O return to him, and he will " form you 
all anew." 

Y. Our last proposition is that if the man harden 
himself into persistent rejection of God and show stub- 
born impenitence, there comes a time when improve- 
ment is no longer possible, and there is nothing for 
him but everlasting destruction from the presence of 
the Lord and the glory of his power. The clay that 
was plastic was made into another vessel ; but the 
bottle that was burned into hardness and was found 
to be worthless was broken into pieces and cast out. 
So when impenitence is perversely persisted in there 
comes a point at which the heart is so hardened 
thereby that repentance is neither thought of, nor 
prompted to, nor desired, and the man is abandoned 
to perdition. And where, do you ask, is that point ? 
I answer that I cannot in every case precisely tell. 
It may be even in the present life, in some instances. 
It was so, I cannot but think, in the case of Saul, for 
when, having finally given up God, he went for help to 
the cave of Endor, and Samuel appeared to him, as 
much to the alarm of the woman as to his own, he 
heard only words of doom. He had gone to the wrong 
resort. Had he but turned to God, we may be sure 
that there would have been something in the future 
for him still. So again in the case of Belshazzar, 
when Daniel came in haste to decipher the writing on 
the wall he read out only words of condemnation. 



OPPORTUNITIES AND THEIR LIMIT. 



165 



He spoke nothing now, as before lie had done to Neb- 
uchadnezzar, of the duty of breaking off sin by right- 
eousness, but merely said, " Thou art weighed in the 
balances and found wanting. God hath numbered thy 
kingdom and finished it." With these cases in mind, 
therefore, I must affirm that this point of transition 
between the ductility of the clay and the hardness of 
the burned bottle may be passed by a man even in this 
life, though, I must also add, that it is not yet passed 
by any one who has a prompting to repentance within 
him, and a desire to return to God and become other 
than he is. But if I may not speak with certainty 
concerning this life, if indeed I must speak with cau- 
tion regarding the point on which I have just touched, 
I have no hesitation regarding the end of this proba- 
tion for all, for, as I read the Scriptures, the whole 
trend and tenor of their teaching go to prove that 
after death there is no possibility of changing char- 
acter, for then the clay is no longer on the wheel, and 
the Gocl-given opportunities are ended. Then the 
vessel is taken to its place of honor in the heavenly 
palace, or cast out to its place of dishonor and de- 
struction in the abysmal Tophet. I know that there is 
a great deal of very loose thinking current in these 
days about what is called " probation after death." 
But the Bible has nothing in it which seems to give 
the least countenance to any such thing. And the 
course of thought along which we have travelled this 
morning cuts at the root of the reason plausibly as- 
signed by many for their advocacy of this opinion. 
It is said that every man must have a probation some- 
where, and therefore that those who have had no pro- 
bation on earth are entitled to it after death. But 
who are they who have had no probation on earth ? 
Are they infants ? Then, if they are to be put on trial, 



168 OPPORTUNITIES AND THEIR LIMIT. 



and therefore in jeopardy, after death, millions of be- 
reaved parents' hearts will leap up in indignant pro- 
test at such an idea, and each will say, " My gathered 
lambs are folded in the Good Shepherd's arms : I want 
none of your speculations that shall speak as if they 
were still in danger." Nay more, if, without personal 
probation, they suffered death because Adam sinned, 
I want to know why without a personal probation they 
may not enjoy eternal life, since Jesus Christ died for 
them and rose again? The same principle applies to 
idiots. "We are, therefore, restricted to the heathen. 
But are we quite sure that they have no probation be- 
fore death? Is the presentation of the gospel neces- 
sary to a probation ? If that be alleged, then I want 
to know on what authority the statement is made ? I 
find nothing of that here in Scripture. On the con- 
trary I find that, as I have already said, the ideal 
for each man is different, and that the ultimate char- 
acter of each will be gauged by his opportunities and 
what he has made of them, such as they were. " They 
that have sinned without law " shall not be judged 
by a law of which they knew nothing : but they shall 
be judged none the less according to the light which 
they possessed ; and what is that but saying that this 
life is for them also a probation ? No man, therefore, 
has a right to affirm that any human being, come to 
years of discretion, on the earth, has not had a proba- 
tion here. All have not equal privileges. That is true 
even in places where the gospel is enjoyed ; and it is 
more largely true, of course, when we take in the race 
as a whole. But equal opportunities for all are not 
essential to a probation for each. If they were, then 
no one of us here could say that we have even now a 
probation, for there are inequalities in the talents 
given to each of us, and in the opportunities afforded 



OPPORTUNITIES AND THEIR LIMIT. 167 



us for their improvement. Thus we see that the as- 
sumption that some men have no probation here lies 
at the root of this modern heresy; and that, as I have 
shown you, is an assumption of what is false. There- 
fore do not let your soul be drugged by this opiate. 
Do not dream of probation after death. Even if it 
were true that such a thing were to be given to the 
heathen, there would still be no hope for you. And 
so, while you may, before the day of grace ends and 
the door of opportunity is shut, return to the Lord by 
faith in Jesus and in obedience unto him. 

I conclude with a word of exhortation especially 
addressed to the young. I have tried to show you 
this morning that the marring of sin will prevent you 
from reaching the highest excellence of character in 
life, and I have pointed out also that, though you may 
afterward turn to God, the result, at last, will be 
short of that which otherwise you might have gained. 
How important it must be, therefore, to give your- 
selves to God in Christ, with the first dawnings of your 
moral intelligence! Keep away, I beseech you, from 
all youthful follies and early sins ; for, even if you 
should repent of them afterward, you will suffer 
either some positive evil or some negative privation 
in consequence. Depend upon it, God will make you, 
in some way, to possess the sins of your youth. Pre- 
serve, I implore you, the first freshness of your early 
innocence, and seek to maintain your young sensitive- 
ness of conscience, for if you once lose these, you will 
never in the future be what otherwise you might have 
become. You may have pardon through the blood of 
Christ, and sanctification by the Spirit of Christ, and 
usefulness, too, by the grace of Christ, but you will 
find that something has gone forever from you, and 
that some other things are forever unattainable by 



168 OPPORTUNITIES AND THEIR LIMIT. 



you. When you pluck a flower in the summer morn- 
ing all sparkling with dewdrops, if you shake these off 
you will never form them again. You may pour water 
on it a thousand times, but never again can you put 
back on its opening leaves those " bright orbicular dia- 
monds " as they sparkled so gloriously in the early 
sunbeam. So, if you go into youthful sins, you can 
never regain all that you have lost thereby. Another 
vessel, by God's grace, may yet be shaped upon the 
wheel, but it will be lowlier and less honorable than 
that which you have marred. Therefore, give your- 
selves now to Christ and become early adherents of 
that religion of which one of the characteristics is that 
it keeps itself "unspotted from the world." 

December 10, 1883 



THE HAEVEST OF RETRIBUTION AND 
REWARD. 

Gal. vi. 7, 8. Be not deceived. God is not mocked ; for what- 
soever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to 
his flesh, etc. 

It is one of the characteristics of Paul that he en- 
forces the commonest duties by the highest motives. 
When he urges the Corinthians to make a contribu- 
tion for the poor saints at Jerusalem, he drives home 
his appeal by these words : " For ye know the grace 
of the Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet 
for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his 
poverty might be rich." When again he vindicates 
himself from the accusation of fanaticism which his 
enemies had made against him he says : " Whether 
we be beside ourselves, it is to God ; or whether we 
be sober, it is for your cause, for the love of Christ 
constraineth us ; because we thus judge that if he 
died for all, then these all died ; and that he died for 
all that they which live should not henceforth live 
unto themselves, but unto him which died for them 
and rose again." His habit thus was to run up the 
separate actions of his life to great principles, by 
which they were dominated, and in accordance with 
which they were regulated. The poet has reminded 
us that in the material universe, 

" That very law which molds a tear 
And bids it trickle from its source, 
That law preserves the earth a sphere 
And holds the planets in their course ; 55 

8 



170 THE HARVEST OF RETRIBUTION AND REWARD. 



and much in the same way the apostle shows that 
the great fact of our redemption by J esus Christ should 
affect the little things of our benevo]ence and our 
manner of speech as really as the great things of our 
life-aim and our bearing at certain crucial and deci- 
sive turning points in our history. The background 
of his life was the cross of Christ, and from that every 
action, whether to human view important or the re- 
verse, drew its inspiration and acquired its momentum. 

But if the Cross was the background of his life, the 
future state was its environment. That enswathed it, 
as the sky enswaths the landscape. This earthly ex- 
istence was for him " rounded " with eternity, and he 
had learned to view the conduct of ' now ' in its relation 
to the great hereafter. So he was continually refer- 
ring to the future as a warning, or a test, or an en- 
couragement in the present. The two great facts in 
the world's history to him were the first and second 
comings of the Lord Jesus Christ. The two great 
doctrines on which, to him, all others depended, and 
which, in his view, stood equally related to all our 
actions, though in different ways, were redemption and 
retribution. In the midst of his sufferings he found 
support in looking back to the obligation under which 
he lay to Christ, and solace in looking forward to the 
time when he should be clothed upon with his house 
which is from heaven. Again, when he was dealing 
with those who had fallen away, the saddest aspect of 
their guilt was, in his eyes, that they were the enemies 
of the cross of Christ, and the most awful thing about 
their destiny was that their end is destruction. Thus 
these doctrines, as he held them, were not mere dry, 
dogmati cstatements, but rather omnipresent and all- 
pervading motives which influenced everything he said, 
or wrote, or did. 



THE HAEVEST OF RETRIBUTION AND REWARD. 171 

Accordingly we are not surprised to find that the 
words of my text stand in immediate connection 
with the command that ministers of the gospel 
should be liberally supported by those whom they 
instruct. That is a commonplace duty, but it is 
lifted by Paul into eternal importance, when he links 
it on, as here, directly and immediately to the doctrine 
of retribution ; for then we are reminded that in the 
way in which we deal with it we must sow either to 
the flesh or to the spirit, and reap either corruption 
or everlasting life. Now, though my business this 
morning is mainly with the doctrine itself, I cannot 
help showing you thus, in the very outset, how it is 
to be applied to all things in that conduct which, ac- 
cording to a recent writer, is " three-fourths of life." 
Paul's faith in a future state of rewards and punish- 
ments did not lie dormant in his soul, like a forgotten 
article of furniture in a dusty attic. It was a living 
and active principle. And his life, as a whole, was 
not " a fortuitous concourse " of actions, but the out- 
come, in individual details, of those two great truths 
which he held in the grasp of a firm and intelligent 
belief, namely, that " we are bought with a price " and 
that " we must all appear before the judgment-seat of 
Christ that every one may receive the things done in 
his body, according to that he hath done, whether it 
be good or bad." Behind him always was "the cross 
of Christ " ; before him always was " the judgment- 
seat of Christ." He never forgot either; and every 
portion of his conduct was affected by them both. It 
was not, therefore, an exceptional thing with him to 
enforce such a common and ordinary duty as the sup- 
port of a minister, by such an overwhelming motive as 
that which is furnished by the doctrine of retribution. 
Rather we may say that the importance of the doc- 



172 TH3 HARVEST OF RETRIBUTION AND REWARD, 

trine, in his view, is attested by this incidental appli- 
cation of it. He is not here systematically and argu- 
mentatively reasoning it out. It is to him one of the 
most absolute of certainties, not more nearly bearing 
on ministerial support than on other duties, but bear- 
ing on that as really as on others ; and so his refer- 
ence to it here is a proof of the fact that the present 
life, and all in it, was for him the germ of eternity, 
and was invested thereby with an infinite significance. 
Leaving, then, the duty in connection with which the 
words of my text were originally written, let us attend 
to the doctrine which they teach. 

I. And in the first place they declare that the relation 
between our life here and our condition hereafter is 
that which exists between seed and the crop that 
springs from it. What that is it might be very dif- 
ficult for us scientifically to explain ; yet even the 
youngest among us knows something of its distinct- 
ive peculiarity. There is in everything that can be 
rightly called a seed a certain germinant quality, so 
that when it is put into, or " sown " in, appropriate 
soil, it begins to sprout, and, under favoring circum- 
stances, ends in the reproduction of itself, not alone as 
a unit, but manifold. An acorn and a stone differ 
from each other in many respects, but the fact that 
the one when planted in the earth produces an oak- 
tree and other acorns, and that the other, though sub- 
jected to the same treatment, undergoes no change, 
but remains simply and only a stone, marks the one 
as a seed and the other as not a seed. Moreover, as 
Paul reminds us in his well-known argument on the 
resurrection, God "has given to every seed its own 
body," that is to say, each produces its own fruit. A 
fir-tree does not spring from a chestnut, neither a 



THE HAEVEST OF EETEIBUTIGN AND EEWAED. 173 



beech-tree from a pine-cone. If you sow corn you do 
not expect to reap wheat ; and if you plant an orchard 
with apple-trees you do not look to see plums upon 
their branches. Or, as the Lord himself has put it, 
using the analogy, however, for another purpose, " Of 
thorns men do not gather figs, nor of a bramble-bush 
gather they grapes." 

There is here a great unchanging and unchange- 
able law. Each seed produces its own body, be- 
cause God has so ordained. That which we reap 
from off the fields of nature is always of the same 
kind with that which we haye sown. No sane man, 
even if he should be the most unquestioning be- 
liever in the transmutation of species, would expect a 
crop of valuable grain from an inclosure which he 
had sown with tares ; and every husbandman when he 
plants his corn does so in the confidence that, accord- 
ing to the uniformity of nature's operations, he will 
have a harvest of the same. He has no manner of 
doubt about it. There may be sometimes a question 
in his mind during a long drought as to whether he 
shall have a larger or smaller crop, possibly even as 
to whether he shall have a crop at all ; but he knows 
that if he have any crop, it shall be of the same kind 
as that which he has planted. On the plane of mate- 
rial nature, then, every one understands, admits, and 
acts upon this principle as an absolute law admitting 
of no exceptions — " Whatsoever a man soweth, that 
shall he also reap." 

Now, with these facts before us, we are in a posi- 
tion to understand what is meant when it is said 
that our life here bears to our condition hereafter 
fche same relation which seed does to that which 
springs from it. For one thing it means that our 
thoughts, words and actions here have in them a 



174 THE HARVEST OF RETRIBUTION AND REWARD. 

seminal and germinating principle. They are not like 
a handful of gravel which, scattered over the earth, re- 
mains gravel and nothing else ; but they are seeds 
which, wherever dropped, are falling into a soil where- 
on, at length, there shall appear a harvest that shall 
be of the same kind as themselves. Have you ever 
thought of this, my hearers ? There is a principle of 
life and reproduction in everything that the soul with- 
in you does, and in the harvest of the future you must 
reap that which has sprung up and ripened therefrom. 
We may not be able quite to realize, at first, all that 
this implies. But there are experiences in the present 
life which may assist us to arrive at a more adequate 
conception of its solemn import. Thoughts tend to 
reproduce themselves. He who admits a holy sug- 
gestion into his mind will find that ever more in the 
pauses of life, and sometimes, too, even in its bustle 
and business, things allied to that sacred meditation, 
and indeed developed by it, will steal into the current 
of his consciousness and fill his soul with their re- 
freshing influence. Indeed it is just in this way that 
the devotions of the closet come at length to hallow 
the entire day ; the seeds sown in that hour so quickly 
germinate that the life is perfumed by the fragrance 
of their blossoming. But the same thing is true on 
the other side. Let a man take in an evil thought, 
and it will constantly reproduce itself within his mind, 
and either torment him with its ever-recurring loath- 
someness, or draw him away with its seductive influ- 
ence. The sight of an impure painting ; the reading 
of a bad book ; the hearing of a song in which the 
witchery of music is wedded to the vice of sensuous- 
ness, will keep returning to the memory, either as 
something to be battled with, or as an influence that 
will finally conquer us — and this is all owing to the 



THE HARVEST OF RETRIBUTION AND REWARD. 175 

fact that thought is seminal and reproductive. So in 
regard to words. They are not dead things — like 
counters in a game, to which some have compared 
them. In a very holy sense the Lord Jesus has said 
in his parable, " The seed is the word," but it is no 
less true that every word is a seed. It reproduces 
itself either in blessing or in curse. Do you want 
an illustration? Then, take the case of the profane 
swearer, and you will see how from the root of his 
first oath all his black blasphemy has sprung until he 
is so much a slave to his evil habit as hardly to be 
conscious of the utterance of those things which send 
a shudder through the hearts of his hearers. While 
again, on the other hand, the speech of the good man 
increases in attractiveness with his constant practice 
of reverence. 

What, indeed, is the great law of habit, when you 
come to think it out, but just another form of the 
principle of my text, "Whatsoever a man soweth, 
that shall he also reap " ? And that question may 
fitly introduce us to the thought that our actions, as 
well as words, are reproductive. You know how true 
that is in the case of the victim of strong drink, 
and the votary of gambling. But these cases are only 
large type illustrations of what is seen, if we care to 
look for it, in other actions. That which we have done 
recurs to us either to haunt us as remorse, or to bless 
us in the approval of conscience and of God. We have 
by our first commission of it so sown it that it shall 
bear fruit, either to upbraid us for being its creators, 
or to bless us for having called it into being. No article 
of our conduct ever stands alone. It may pass from 
our memory, indeed, for a time, even as the seed in 
the soil decays and dies ; yet, at length, in the re- 
production of it we shall be made to think of it and to 



176 THE HAEVEST OF RETRIBUTION AND REWARD. 

connect it with its fruit. What a graphic illustration 
of this we have in the case of Joseph's brethren! 
They sold him into slavery, and when they had palmed 
their lie upon their father they thought no more upon 
their guilt. They had rid themselves of an inconve- 
nient rsporter of their evil doings, and so all was well- 
But when that which they had sowed in the captivity 
of their brother was reaped by them in the shape of 
their own imprisonment, then they said one to another, 
" We were verily guilty concerning our brother : when 
we saw the anguish of his soul ; when he besought us 
and we would not hear; therefore is this distress come 
upon us." And can we help seeing how the lie which 
Jacob told to Isaac bore fruit to Jacob's own misery 
in the falsehood of his sons to himself ? Thus, either iu 
our own enlarged and habitual commission of it, or in 
the being compelled to endure it at the hands of others, 
sin is ever, by its own reproduction, the punishment 
of sin. And whether we think of it or not, in all our 
thoughts and words and actions we are sowing seeds 
of which we shall have to reap the harvest by-ancl-by. 

But the same thing is seen, very often, in the rela- 
tion of one segment of our life upon earth to the re- 
mainder of that life. It is one of the commonest of com- 
monplaces that youth is the seed-time of life. If that 
be improved as it ought to be, the rest of the earthly 
existence will be noble ; but if that be wasted, the re- 
mainder will never be what it might have been and 
ought to have neen. The man may receive regenera- 
tion, indeed, through repentance unto life, and in 
some aspects of his later history there may even be 
good brought out of the former evil ; but never can 
he be what he might have been if he had not to reap 
in his age the harvest from the seed he sowed in 
youth ; and if he do not repent at all, the life as a 



THE HARVEST OF RETRIBUTION AND REWARD. 177 

whole is a seed from which the ultimate harvest must 
be terrible. There is a way of speaking on this sub- 
ject, indeed, which would lead us to suppose that the 
"sowing of wild oats," as it is called, is merely a 
necessary stage in the development of a young man, 
and that if, after that has been gone through, he can 
be led to settle down, no great harm will come. But, 
not to say that there is a tremendous uncertainty in 
that if, we must bear in mind that from every 
seed planted there is and must be a growth, and that 
in some way or other God will make a man possess 
the sins of his youth. The sowing is to be followed 
by a reaping, and the crop will be of the same kind 
as the seed ; so that after all there are few things in 
life so expensive and so absolutely insane as this 
same scattering of wild oats, at which so many fool- 
ishly make mirth as if it were a thing of course. 
Young man ! remember it : you shall have to reap all 
that you sow. It may not be this year, or next year, 
but you shall reap — for as the French lady said to the 
great ecclesiastic, " My Lord Cardinal ! God does not 
pay at the end of every week, but at the last he pays ! " 

Now, with these experiences in the present state of 
existence fresh in our remembrance, we can better 
apprehend the truth regarding future retribution 
which is taught by my text. Just as individual 
thoughts, and words, and actions are seminal ; just as 
one part of our earthly life is a seed-time for another ; 
so our life on earth, as a whole, is the germ from 
which our eternity shall spring. Retribution is the 
reaping of the harvest from the seeds which all through 
our earthly existence we were sowing. The sinner will 
be given up to his sin — left to it and in it ; the saint 
will rise to higher holiness, and find happiness and 
reward in the things which most he delighted in on 
8* 



178 THE HARVEST OP RETRIBUTION AND REWARD. 

eartli. There is nothing arbitrary here. I have no 
doubt, indeed, that in heaven there will be a special 
bestowment of reward ; and in hell a positive inflic- 
tion of judicial punishment ; but still, as one of my 
revered instructors has remarked on these verses, " It 
surely deserves notice that in very many passages of 
Scripture the misery of the irreclaimably impenitent 
is represented as the native necessary result of their 
own conduct. The whole economy of God's moral gov- 
ernment would need to be altered ; the constituent prin- 
ciples of man's nature would need to be changed, be- 
fore those who live and die ' carnal ' can be really happy 
in another world." * That which a man has fostered 
here in himself will be the source of his blessedness or 
the fountain of his woe hereafter. In a word, himself 
will be his reward or retribution, and that self he is 
making now, by the thoughts and words and actions 
in which he is indulging. So as he is sowing now he 
shall reap hereafter ; nay, more explicitly, that which 
he is sowing now he will reap hereafter. It is as 
absurd to suppose that if we are wedded to sin here 
we shall be holy, and therefore happy, in the future 
life, as it is for a man who has planted thorns to ex- 
pect from them a return of grapes. And if we delight 
in the Lord after the inner man, and find our joy in 
serving Christ on earth, we may as rationally look for 
heaven in the state beyond as the farmer who sows 
barley may anticipate that he shall reap the same. 
To expect anything else is to " mock God " by disregard- 
ing the law which he has written as clearly on our 
moral constitution as that of fruit bearing after its 
kind is written on the vegetable kingdom. Here then 
are the two things that underlie the figure of my text, 



* John Brown, D.D., in exposition of the Galatians in loco. 



THE HARVEST OF RETRIBUTION AND REWARD. 179 

— the present life is the seed-plot of the future state ; 
and the harvest which we reap in eternity is the same 
in character and quality as that which now we sow. 

II. But the second thought suggested by the words 
before us is that there are only two kinds of seed 
which we can sow in our earthly existence. The 
apostle mentions sowing to the flesh, and sowing to 
the spirit — these are all ; and each of us is doing one 
or the other. There is no third alternative. It be- 
hooves us, then, to make very sure what these two are. 
The " flesh" is Paul's term for unrenewed human 
nature. And if you look at the section of this epistle 
to which the text belongs you can be at no loss to 
discover what he means by the phrase " he that soweth 
to his flesh." For thus he writes : " The works of the 
flesh are manifest, which are these, adultery, fornica- 
tion, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, 
hatred, variance, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, 
envyings, murders, drunkenness, revelings, and such 
like " ; and lest anyone should imagine that only very 
heinous sins, which rank in the eyes of men as crimes 
as well as vices, come under this classification, he has 
still further indicated the scope of the term when he 
says, "Let us not be desirous of vainglory, provoking 
one another, envying one another." Nay, as seems to 
me very plain from the verse immediately preceding 
the text, he includes the stinginess which witholds 
suitable maintenance from the Christian minister 
under that " sowing to the flesh " of which the result 
is corruption. And as he has declared that "they 
that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affec- 
tions and lusts," it is also perfectly clear that all who 
are not Christ's, and who have not crucified the flesh, 
are sowing to the flesh. On the other hand, the " spirit " 



180 THE HAEVEST OF RETRIBUTION AND REWARD. 

throughout this passage is most naturally taken to 
mean not the Holy Spirit, but that which is the 
proper antithesis to unrenewed human nature, namely, 
the renewed man. 

Thus, then, we get the result that the unregene- 
rated man is " sowing to the flesh," and the re- 
generated man — he who is in Christ and therefore 
a new creature — is " sowing to the spirit." So it 
comes to this, that if we would make the best of 
the present life as the germ of the future state, we 
must be born again ; and the evidence that we are 
thus regenerated will be furnished by our manifesta- 
tion of the fruit of the Spirit " which is, " Love, joy, 
peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meek- 
ness, temperance." Nay, more, as in the natural 
world that which we take for seed has already grown 
and is itself a fruit, so these virtues which are them- 
selves in one sense the fruit of our regeneration are in 
another the seed of the Spirit from which are yet to 
spring up the blessedness and reward of heaven. My 
brethren, these are great principles. They have a 
tremendous sweep ; and yet they bear down with all 
their force upon each individual among us. They tell 
us that unless through faith in Christ and the agency 
of his Spirit we have been born again we are and 
must be sowing to the flesh. I dare not make any excep- 
tions here, and so the question for each of us — a ques- 
tion whose answer carries the whole color and com- 
plexion of our eternity in it — is, " Have I been born 
again?" Oh ! if it be that a soul here is still unre- 
newed, may God the Holy Ghost use the truth which 
I have now brought before you in quickening that 
soul to life in Christ ! 

III. But, in the third place, the text suggests that 



fHE HARVEST OF RETRIBUTION AND REWARD. 181 



in the case of both sowings the harvest will be an in- 
crease. Usually the crop is a multiplication of the 
seed. As the parable has it, in some it is thirty-fold, 
in some sixty-fold, and in some an hundred-fold. So, 
too, it is always the case that the quantity reaped is 
proportioned to the quantity sown. " He that soweth 
sparingly shall reap also sparingly ; but he that 
soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully." There 
shall be degrees in retribution and reward. The 
ragged urchin in our city streets, who has not 
had the opportunities of a Christian household, will 
not have to gather such a harvest of suffering from 
his sowing to the flesh as will he who has sinned 
against light and privilege of the highest order. 
The heathen, who have not heard of Christ, will not 
have the same future as those who, having had the 
Saviour preached to them, have defiantly rejected 
him. The Lord said unto Capernaum : "It shall be 
more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of 
judgment than for thee." So, in the matter of retri- 
bution the condition of each will be proportioned to 
his guilt. But the same principle holds in reward. 
There shall be degrees of glory as well as of perdition. 
He who creeps in at last to the kingdom through the 
fast closing gate, and by a death-bed repentance be- 
comes regenerated, shall not have a place like that ot 
the man whose entire life has been devoted to the 
Lord Jesus. He who made the one pound into ten 
received in the parable authority over ten cities. He 
who from the one gained as much as made it five was set 
over five cities. All this goes to show that while it is 
wholly of grace that reward is granted to any believer, 
yet the reward itself is graduated for each according 
to the magnitude of the service. We all admit that 
in the matter of reward ; but we too often forget that 



182 THE HARVEST OF RETRIBUTION AND REWARD. 

the same principle holds in respect to punishment , 
and I cannot but think that if more prominence had 
been given to that aspect of the subject there would 
be less difficulty felt in accepting that doctrine which 
has been such an offense to many modern inquirers. 

But though there is thus a proportion in quantity 
between the seed and the crop, the harvest is always an 
increase on that which was sown. From the seed of 
the flesh the ripened result is corruption, which is 
flesh in its most revolting state. From the seed of the 
spirit the full ear is life everlasting, which is eternal 
holiness with its concomitant of endless happiness. 
And what can I say to make these ideas more clear 
and forcible than this simple presentation of them is ? 
Corruption ! The delirium tremens of the drunkard, 
and the living death of the sensualist whose sin has 
found him out here on earth, may help us to under- 
stand something of what that must mean in eternity, 
and for the rest I must ask Byron to help me out. For 
these are his words describing even earthly desolation 
of heart : 

" It is as if the dead could feel 
The icy worm around them steal, 
And shudder, as the reptiles creep 
To revel o'er their rotting sleep, 
Without the power to scare away 
The cold consumers of their clay." 

But enough of that ! I turn rather to the other side, 
and bid you remember that the highest happiness of 
the Christian's experience on earth will be but like as 
the faint light of early dawn is to the meridian day, 
when it is compared with the blessedness of heaven. 
The harvest is always an increase. We plant a single 
grain, we pluck a full ear ; we sow in handfuls, we 
reap in bosomfuls ; we scatter bushels, but we 



THE HARVEST OF RETRIBUTION AND REWARD. 183 



gather in rich granary stores. The remorse of earth 
is but the germ of the despair of hell. The holiness 
of the present is only the bud from which will blossom 
that vision of God which is the full-flowered beatitude 
of heaven. 

Now, if all this be true, see how it invests the pres- 
ent life with infinite importance. It used to be said 
by the apostles of infidelity, under the name of secu- 
larism, that belief in a future state unfits men for 
the performance of the duties of the life that now is 
by fixing their minds on that which is as yet in the 
distance. But the course of thought which we have 
followed this morning utterly falsifies such a state- 
ment. It were just as rational to allege that the hus- 
bandman by looking forward to the harvest incapaci- 
tates himself for the work of the spring-time ; or that 
the youth by setting his ambition on after success is 
thereby disqualified for the prosecution of his early 
education, as it is to affirm that faith in the future life 
prevents us from performing the work of to-day. The 
truth rather is that it intensifies the importance of the 
presentby focusing upon it the issues of eternity. It 
makes us all the more careful to do the work that lies 
at our hands, not in the fleshly manner of the unre- 
newed man, but after the spiritual method of the re- 
generated soul. Every thought we think, every word 
we speak, every action we perform, every opportunity 
of service neglected or improved, is a seed sown by us 
the fruit of which shall multiply either into untold 
miseries or myriad blessings in the eternity into 
which we go. That is the teaching of the word of 
God, and who shall say that such a view of the case 
does not magnify, rather than diminish, the signifi- 
cance of the present ? In the stirring history of Eng j 
lish martyrology we read of an eminent victim that on 



184 THE HARVEST OF RETRIBUTION AND REWARD. 

one occasion lie was taken from his dungeon to a cham* 
ber which was hung round with tapestry ; that there he 
was being gradually drawn into a conversation regard- 
ing himself and his companions when in a moment of 
quietness he heard the sound of the nib of a pen mov- 
ing upon paper, as if some one were writing behind the 
arras; and that immediately thereupon he became 
silent, for well he knew that by a thoughtless word 
he might bring upon both himself and his brethren 
the severest suffering. But, my hearers, the actions 
in which now we engage are seeds whose fruit shall 
be eternal, and when we know and believe that shall 
we be less careful of them than he was of his speech ? 
It is told of a famous painter that he was remarkable 
for the careful manner in which he went about his 
work, and when one asked him why he took such 
pains his answer was : " Because I paint for eternit}^" 
Beloved, shall this be so in the case of one who is try- 
ing to secure a lasting earthly fame, and shall we not 
be considerate in all our ways, knowing that what we 
are doing now shall have an eternal effect upon our 
character and condition ? Every day we live we are 
treasuring up for ourselves wrath against the day of 
wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment o 1 
God, or we are laying up for ourselves treasures i i 
heaven, " where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt." 
Yfhat need, then, thafc we should daily consider what 
shall be the end of these things, and whether we are 
sowing to the flesh or to the spirit ? Let the thought- 
less among us be startled into earnestness by this 
solemn consideration ; and if there be those here who 
are seeking prayerfully to sow to the spirit, but in 
their battle with discouragements are filled with de- 
spondency lest at length there should be little result, 
let them take courage ; they shall reap. It may not 



THE HARVEST OF RETRIBUTION AND REWARD. 185 

be immediately, but they shall reap in due season, if 
they faint not. It is to " mock " God to think otherwise, 
and when I put it so, my Christian brethren, you, 
I know, will be the last to incur any such guilt as that. 
Hold on, then, though your sowing should be in sor- 
row. Here is a song for your inspiration. Sing it, and 
as you honor God by the faith which it breathes you 
will acquire new strength for the work which you are 
carrying through. " They that sow in tears shall reap 
in joy. He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing pre- 
cious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing 
bringing his sheaves with him." 

February 27, 1881. 



DEBTOES. 



Romans i. 14. I am debtor both to the Greeks and to the barba- 
rians : both to the wise and to the unwise. 

The Greeks styled " barbarians " all those who did 
not speak that polished language of which they were so 
justly proud. In the mouth of a Jew, therefore, the 
phrase " Greeks and barbarians " included all Gen- 
tiles. So, when Paul affirms that he is " a debtor both 
to the Greeks and to the barbarians, both to the wise and 
to the unwise," his meaning is that he is under obliga- 
tion to Gentiles universally without respect to race or 
culture ; and in the text he gives that as a reason why 
he was so anxious to visit Borne — because that was the 
place where he was most likely to meet representatives 
of all existing nationalities and of all grades of intel- 
ligence. The language is commercial, and yet the 
obligation which it acknowledges is not precisely that 
which a merchant commonly understands by the words. 
Debt is that which a man owes to another for some- 
thing which he has bought from him on trust, or re- 
ceived from him as a loan. But Paul was not in any 
such way indebted to the Gentiles. He had never 
bought anything in their markets without paying its 
price. They had not lent him any sums of money on 
interest. No human being had any pecuniary claim 
against him. He was, in that sense, the most inde- 
pendent of men, for he owed no one a penny. 

Neither did he owe the Gentiles any gratitude for fa- 
vors which he had received at their hands, for in 



DEBTORS. 



187 



almost every city in which he labored he had encoun- 
tered persecution, and suffered wrong. It was not 
therefore, on the ground of anything which he had 
obtained from the Gentiles that Paul acknowledged 
himself to be their debtor, but solely on the ground 
of that which he had received from another for them. 
At his conversion to Christianity he had been com- 
missioned to the Gentiles " to open their eyes and to 
turn them from darkness to light and from the power 
of Satan unto God, that they might receive forgiveness 
of sins, and inheritance among them which are sancti- 
fied " ; and so he regarded himself as " the apostle of 
the Gentiles." Just as at a far later date John Wesley 
declared that the world was his parish, so Paul 
looked upon himself as a bishop whose diocese in- 
cluded all the Gentile nationalities. " The glorious 
gospel of the blessed God " had been " committed" to 
his " trust " for their behoof ; he had been " allowed 
of God to be put in trust with the gospel " for their 
benefit, and, therefore, that he might be a faithful 
steward of the mysteries of God, he was exceedingly 
desirous of preaching the truth as it is in Jesus to 
men of every nation, and of every degree. He could 
not honestly hold it back. It had not been given to 
him for himself alone, and if he had attempted to keep 
it from his fellow-men he would have been false to 
the trust which had been committed to his care, and 
could not have vindicated himself either at the bar of 
conscience or at the bar of God. 

The case stood thus : On the one hand he had him- 
self been signally blessed by the Lord Jesus Christ. 
When he was ignorantly rushing on in a career of an- 
tagonism to the truth, and had become a persecutor 
and a murderer, he was apprehended by the mercy of 
the Most High, and at the very moment when his eyes 



188 



DEBTORS. 



were opened to the discovery of his guilt he received 

the assurance of his forgiveness. Henceforth a new 
life began in him. Everything was changed to him 1 
and in recognition of the love which had been shown 
to him he placed himself soul, body and spirit at the 
disposal of the Lord. Had it pleased the Saviour so 
to employ him, he would probably have preferred to 
remain at Jerusalem and work in his service there ; 
but it was not for him to choose, and when he was 
specially commissioned to go to the Gentiles, he went 
with his whole soul to do his Master's bidding. Under- 
neath this obligation, therefore, in the heart of Paul 
there lay all his gratitude to the Redeemer for his 
own salvation, and he sought in this practical way, 
by laboring for the benefit of others, to show the 
magnitude of his appreciation of all that he owed to 
Christ. 

Then, on the other side, there were the clamant 
needs of the Gentile world. The vision of the man of 
Macedonia crying, " Gome over and help us," was, 
indeed, a special divine indication to him of what the 
Lord would have him to do ; but it came to him in 
that form and at that time, because it was already in 
the line of all his aspirations, and desires, and pur- 
poses. He knew the hollowness of the idolatries of 
the Gentiles ; he had seen the degradation to which 
their worship led ; and having learned the value of 
his own soul at the cross of Christ, he was eager to be 
the means of communicating the same revelation, and 
conveying the same life to them. This was the spon- 
taneous prompting of the new nature which he had 
received from Christ by the regeneration and in-dwell- 
ing of the Holy Spirit ; but that yearning of his own 
was intensified, and made no mere spasmodic emotion, 
but an abiding principle of action, in him by the re- 



DEBTOES. 



189 



ception of his commission as the " apostle of the 
Gentiles." For that commission made him personally 
responsible for their becoming acquainted with the 
gospel of the Lord Jesus, and so, wherever he came 
into contact with them, he could not rest until he had 
preached it to them. Whether they should accept it 
or not rested with themselves. That was a matter of 
their own choice. But as for the proclamation of it 
to them, he had no alternative ; for necessity was laid 
upon him, and he felt that it was at his peril if he 
should hold his peace. 

How that motive operated in him is seen in a 
very peculiar manner by his course at Athens. He 
was in that classic city alone. He had not intended, 
so far as appears, without the support of com- 
panions, to do anything publicly there ; but when 
he saw the state of things among the people his spirit 
was so stirred that, in defiance of all the dictates 
of prudence, and at the risk of scorn and persecution, 
he could not but speak. And when we get thus up to 
the fountain-head of motive in his heart, it becomes 
easy for us to understand how it came that Paul was 
enabled to do so much both for the church and for the 
world. He was always on the outlook for opportu- 
nities of paying this debt both to the Greeks and to the 
barbarians ; both to the wise and to the unwise. He 
was not afraid to speak to men like Sergius Paulus, or 
Festus ; and yet he was not above seeking the salva- 
tion of a runaway slave like Onesimus. He was 
equally earnest in the little prayer-meeting of women 
at Philippi where Lydia was converted, and upon the 
summit of Areopagus where he was surrounded by the 
proud philosophers of Athens ; for he was in debt to 
both alike, and he sought to have himself clear from 
the blood of both. He could not rest under this obli- 



190 



DEBTOES. 



gaiion, but went in obedience to it from city to city 
until he reached Rome at last ; and even there, when 
he was an "ambassador in bonds," he found a con- 
gregation large enough for his ambition in the soldier 
that was chained to his right arm. He never saw a 
man without remembering that he had a debt to pay to 
him, and so, not more for the benefit of the stranger 
than for the exoneration of his own conscience in the 
manifestation of fidelity to the trust which he had re* 
ceived for him, he sought his highest welfare. Un- 
like the dishonest debtor who flees from land to land 
that he may escape his creditors, Paul was ever on 
the move that he might fairly and honestly meet the 
obligations that rested upon him, and might have new 
opportunities of coming into contact with those for 
whom God had appointed him trustee. Brethren, 
when I put it so, I cease to wonder at the unwearying 
assiduity of the great apostle, while at the same time 
I am filled with shame at the poor, paltry littleness of 
our modern Christianity when compared with his. 
For, while there was undeniably a specialty in the 
case of Paul, inasmuch as he was distinctly and di- 
vinely commissioned to be the apostle of the Gentiles, 
the obligation to which he here refers is general and 
rests on every individual believer. In him it came to a 
distinct and definite head, and took an individual and 
peculiar direction under the articulate command of 
the Lord. But his was only a specific instance of a 
generic principle, and that principle holds to-day for 
us as really and powerfully as it did for him. 

Now what is that principle ? It is this, that personal 
possession of any peculiar privilege is of the nature of 
a trust, and involves the obligation that the privilege 
shall be used by the individual not for his own pleas- 
ure or profit merely, but for the welfare of those whc 



DEBTOKS. 



195 



are not similarly blessed. What I have that another 
has not is to be used by me not for my own aggran- 
dizement, but for the good of that other as well as for 
my own. It is not mine in the sense of its being simply 
for my own enjoyment. I may not say regarding it : 
" Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine 
own? " for I do not hold it as of absolute possession. 
It is committed to me as a trust. I hold it merely as 
a steward holds that which is another's ; and I am to 
use it not for myself alone, but also with a view to the 
benefit of those who have not the same privilege as 
has been conferred on me. The greatness of excep- 
tional endowment, of whatever sort it may be, carries 
with it an obligation to similar exceptional greatness 
of service. The highest of all, by virtue of his very ele- 
vation, is to be the servant of all. The power of the 
strong is, shall I say? divinely mortgaged in the 
interests of the weak ; the sufferer whom I have the 
means of relieving has a God-given claim upon me 
for that relief ; and the ignorant, whom I am able to 
instruct, is by God entitled to that instruction at my 
hands. He who has, is in debt to him who has not. 
This is clearly the true interpretation of such a para- 
ble as that of the good Samaritan ; and indeed it is 
the true and proper outcome of the gospel itself. 

I know that it seems to run counter to the common 
modes of thought of the world ; but it is not the less 
surely the Christian view of the matter because of 
that. Selfishness would repudiate all such indebted- 
ness. The man of power says he has won his position, 
and that he has a right to use it as he will, no matter 
what may become of others in the process. The man 
of wealth thinks that the merit of his acquisition is 
all his own, and that to talk of his being in debt to 
others because he is so wealthy is a ridiculous absurd-* 



192 



DEBTOES. 



ity. The man of education is apt to become proud of 
his learning. Has he not amassed it all by his own 
efforts ? May he not therefore keep it to himself ? or 
if he wishes to diffuse it may he not do so on his own 
terms, and so as to minister to his own profit ? And 
so with all other possessors — each in his own measure 
is prompted to say of his property like another Nebu- 
chadnezzar, " Is not this great Babylon that I have 
built for the house of my kingdom and for the honor of 
my majesty ? " and so each has become, by virtue of his 
possessions, just so much the more an oppressor and 
an affliction to tho.?e who are beneath him. That has 
been the world's way. 

But Christ has inaugurated a new dispensation 
and reversed all that by introducing the principle on 
which I am now insisting, and already we see indica- 
tions of its operations among us. Take power, for 
example, and how readily now men understand and 
assent to the statement that it has its duties — and that 
is only another word for debts — as well as its preroga- 
tives ? The chief magistrate of this Bepublic is 
presumably the most powerful individual in it, yet he 
may not use his power simply for his own ends. True, 
he is limited by the Constitution, but still outside of 
the Constitution altogether, and in the public opinion 
of the country, there is the feeling that in numberless 
ways which no written constitution could enumerate 
he owes it to the community to exert his power for the 
public welfare, and not either for personal or party 
purposes. It may be difficult to enforce that obliga- 
tion in any legal way, but still it is there, assented to 
by his own heart as well as required by his fellow- 
citizens. Then as to wealth : the conviction is becom- 
ing stronger among us that riches bring obligations 
with them, and that the man who is blessed with them 



DEBTORS. 



193 



owes certain duties, that is to say, is himself a debtor, 
to the community of which he is a member. No civil 
statute, indeed, could define precisely what these 
duties are, and no legal tribunal could enforce them ; 
but still they are there, and the obligation to perform 
them is not the less imperative or important because 
the measure of obedience to them is left in each case 
to the impulse of the individual heart. The rich man 
who makes himself a great Dead Sea into which all the 
streams of his effort run, and from which nothing 
flows out, is despised ; while every one honors him 
who uses his money for the good of the people. That 
shows how thoroughly this principle that possession 
implies trust has permeated our modern life. The 
same is true of education, and of all the other things 
which become the property of a man, whether by in- 
heritance or through God's blessing on his own exer- 
tions. True, we are a very long way yet either from 
a universal or from a full recognition of this principle 
in general society. But it is making its way ; and 
what I am anxious that you should observe is, that it 
has had its origin in the gospel ; and that in the 
measure in which it advances it will diminish the 
perils that are, I fear, incident to our modern civiliza- 
tion. 

It has had its origin in the gospel, for, until Christ 
came, men cared little for anything outside of them- 
selves. The question of Cain, "Am I my brother's 
keeper ? " gives the key to the explanation of all the 
enormities of the ancient civilizations ; and after a 
survey of the history of the world before the advent, 
one might employ the preacher's words : " So I re- 
turned and considered all the oppressions that are 
done under the sun ; and behold the tears of such as 
were oppressed ; and they had no comforter ; and on 
9 



194 



DEBTORS. 



the side of their oppressors there was power, but they 
had no comforter." But Christ brought the power of 
the highest to the help of the lowest ; and he taught 
his followers to look " not every man on his own things, 
but every man also on the things of others." He con- 
demned the selfish and complacent policy of passing 
misery, or sorrow, or want, or oppression " by on the 
other side," and commissioned all his followers — as 
really as he commissioned Paul to be apostle of the 
Gentiles — to use all the resources at their command 
for the mitigation of the sufferings and the removal of 
the ignorance of their fellow-men, so that each of them 
might say, " I am a debtor both to the wise and to the 
unwise." 

And this principle, thus introduced by the gospel, 
furnishes that which is needed to meet the perils of 
our modern civilization. The tendency of the times is 
to increase the separation between different classes in 
the community. "We continually hear it said that the 
rich are becoming richer, and the poor are growing 
poorer. The gulf which has long yawned between 
employers and employed is widening ; and the dis- 
tance between the avenues and the tenement houses 
is constantly becoming greater. Now some of that is 
no doubt inevitable. We can never have a dead level 
of absolute equality. It is as natural for society to 
divide itself into classes as it is for the tree to diverge 
into branches. And though there be no aristocracy 
so-called among us, the divisions are just as clearly 
though it may be not so strongly marked in this land 
as they are in some European countries. The truth 
is that such divergence is everywhere unavoidable, 
although, in these days, even the very triumphs of 
modern machinery have helped to make it worse than 
perhaps otherwise it might have been. And the thing 



DEBTORS. 



195 



has to be accepted. We cannot get rid of it, and we 
must not seek by any factitious means, far less by any 
violent means, to remove it. What we have to do is to 
bring the gospel principle of my text to bear upon it 
with more force. For see how it takes the poison out 
of all this diversity of condition among men. It 
makes the powerful man the trustee for the weak ; the 
rich man the guardian of the poor ; the learned man 
the teacher of the ignorant, and the free man the 
emancipator of the enslaved. Thus by so much the 
more powerful one becomes, by so much the better 
it will be for the weak beneath his protection ; by so 
much the wealthier the rich man is, by just so much the 
better will it be for the poor to whom he is a debtor ; 
and so with all other possessions. When his followers 
disputed among themselves which should be greatest, 
the Lord, instead of seeking to uproot ambition, gave 
a new definition of greatness as service, and bade 
them be ambitious of that, thereby transmuting that 
principle which had been the blackest curse of hu- 
manity into a means of richest blessing. And in pre- 
cisely the same way here, the gospel, far from blotting 
out all distinctions in society, as the communist would 
do, makes the very privileges which mark the dis- 
tinction between a higher class and a lower the basis 
of obligation, so that the one is the debtor of the 
other, and the obligation increases with the increase 
of the privilege. In this regard it is a solemn thing to 
be the possessor of a special blessing, for while it is a 
boon it always brings a responsibility, and makes its 
receiver a debtor to others who are less fortunate 
than himself. That is the Christian principle ; and 
when men generally accept and act upon it, the mil- 
lennium shall have begun. Meanwhile it is ours, each 
in his own place, to carry it fully and faithfully 



196 



DEBTOES. 



through, and so to supply what in us lies of that 
wholesome and corrective influence that is needed to 
counteract the selfishness that is seeking to disinte- 
grate society. 

But if this principle introduced by Christ is thus 
making its way in the world, we should expect to find 
its highest manifestation in the Christian church. 
And here, though it has not yet attained anything 
like its legitimate development, we are not entirely 
disappointed, for it has put the heroism and self- 
sacrifice into our religious life. It has originated and 
sustained the great missionary enterprise ; and thougli 
the church as a whole has not yet anything like come 
up to the level of Paul, not to speak of that of his 
Divine Master, still there have been individuals who 
are not unworthy to be compared even with the great 
apostle of the Gentiles. While we here at home are 
enjoying our privileges with self-complacency and 
satisfaction, and thinking that we perform our part 
by giving a small annual donation to the American 
Board, the men whom that Board has commissioned 
are laboring with devoted heroism to carry the gospel 
into benighted lands. Only two days ago I received 
the account of the pioneer work in 1881 of those noble 
men who have gone to begin a mission in "West 
Central Africa, and as I read the thrilling narrative 
of patience and self-sacrifice, of long journeying cheer- 
fully undertaken and severe sickness meekly borne, I 
felt ashamed of myself, and recognized that I am not 
worthy to unloose the latchets of their shoes. The 
people around them will have it that they have gone 
to trade. They insist upon it that they must have gone 
to receive. They cannot understand that they have 
gone to give. They look upon them with wonder when 



DEBTORS. 



197 



they learn their purpose ; and the day is coming when 
they shall be spoken of as among the Pauls of this 
nineteenth century. These men have no gain to seek 
of an earthly sort. They have gone like the apostle 
to pay a debt — your debt and mine ; and their example 
ought to quicken and stimulate us to similar self- 
denial here in our own city. For there is a sphere 
here also at our very doors for the operation of this 
principle, that every privilege is of the nature of a 
trust. 

"We all admit that the possession of spiritual bless- 
ing involves responsibility, but in making the admis- 
sion we think almost exclusively of responsibility for 
ourselves. We feel that because we have so much, 
therefore we ought to be so much. Because we have 
the Bible and the sanctuary and church ordinances, 
and the like, therefore we ought to make the best 
and the most of these for our own individual sancti- 
fication. Our holiness ought to be the result of our 
privileges. And so far so well. That is all true, and 
no one can gainsay it, but it is not all the truth ; for 
we have these privileges that we may pass them on 
to others. Remember, the principle of my text is, 
that he who has, is debtor to him who has not. If we 
have the Bible and others are without it, then we 
owe the Bible to those who have not yet received 
it. If we have a church edifice, and others have 
no place wherein they may gather for the worship 
of God, and no means to rear one, while we have the 
power to help them, then we owe churches to those 
destitute ones. If we have a minister whose words 
on the Lord's day are full of inspiration and strength 
to us, and others have no stated ordinances, then we 
owe it to these others that men shall be commissioned 
to preach unto them the word of life, and to gather 



198 



DEBTOES. 



them into Christian communities for mutual edifica* 
tion and for the further extension of the gospel of 
Christ. Yes, I say we owe it to them, for the plea 
here is not to our generosity but to our justice, and 
unless we honor it, we must stand forth at last before 
God and the world as defaulters, arid that in a depart- 
ment where the loss from our unfaithfulness is one 
that cannot be computed in dollars and cents, but 
must be reckoned in the souls of immortal men. Ah ! 
if we who profess and call ourselves Christians did 
but feel the full force of this obligation as Paul felt 
it, how soon would the world be converted unto 
Christ ? How easy then would become the solution 
of that problem which presses so heavily upon the 
heart of every faithful minister in this city, How shall 
the great population round about us be thoroughly 
evangelized ? There are Christians enough in all our 
churches to do the work if each of them would say 
with Paul, " I am a debtor " to all around me who 
know not the gospel of the Lord, and would realize 
that he has received the glad evangel as a trust for 
those who have not yet heard its message of mercy. 
My brethren, when I put the matter thus I am over- 
whelmed with the sense of the obligation that I am 
seeking to enforce, and am constrained to cry for 
myself as my own shortcomings rise up before me : 
" Deliver me from blood-guiltiness, O God, thou God 
of my salvation." We execrate the deed of her who, 
| having received a ring from the imprisoned noble- 
man under the promise that she would take it and let 
it plead for him with his queen, held back the token 
and allowed him to go unforgiven to the block. We 
loathe the treachery of those who, having in their 
hands a reprieve for the brave old Covenanter, kept 
it to themselves and sent him to the scaffold. And 



DEBTORS. 



199 



we ! God help us ! we, with the gospel that proclaims 
mercy to mankind in our hands, let multitudes go 
down undone to an eternity without telling them the 
good news or seeking to lift them from their degra- 
dation ! Yet, let us be thankful, we are doing some- 
thing — would that it were more — but we are doing 
something, and to-day you are asked to give your 
contributions to keep up the work. The Bethany 
Mission makes its appeal to you once more. It 
asks you for the means of carrying on its operations 
for another year. Give it in full, and let the offer- 
ing of to-day be the prophecy of a yet larger liber- 
ality when you shall be requested to rear for them a 
building of their own.* We are debtors to those seven 
hundred children and to those one hundred and 
twenty church members, because we are debtors to 
the Lord Jesus Christ. May he help us now in some 
degree to meet the obligation ! 

February 26, 1882. 



* It is gratifying to be able to state that since this discourse was 
preached the new Bethany Church, on Tenth Avenue near Thirty- 
sixth Street, has been built by the Broadway Tabernacle Church, at 
a cost of $58,000, of which about three-fourths has been already paid. 



THE REVELATION AT THE BUSH. 

Deuteronomy xxxiii. 16. The good-will of him that dwelt in the 
bush. 

In recent days there has been much debate among 
critics as to the authorship of the book of Deuteron- 
omy, and many have supposed that its date must be 
fixed far down in the history of Israel. The grounds 
on which such an opinion is advanced seem to me far 
too slender for the support of so sweeping a conclu- 
sion. The objections to it are so serious as to be 
utterly insurmountable save by evidence of the clear- 
est sort ; and the different views which have been sub- 
stituted for that commonly believed among us are so 
inconsistent with each other as to be mutually de- 
structive. For all these reasons, therefore, I am con- 
strained, in spite of the learned dissertations of the so- 
called higher critics, to rest in the conviction that, 
with the exception of the last chapter, and some few 
editorial additions here and there which can be easily 
distinguished even by the English reader, the book, 
as a whole, is, as it purports to be, the work of Moses 
himself. 

But, however the case may stand with the work as 
a unit, the words of my text are decisive as to the 
authorship of the blessing of which they form a part 
Every jurist is familiar with the story of the judge 
who upset the argument in favor of the antiquity of a 
document by holding it up between him and the light, 
and revealing in the water-mark of the paper itself a 
date far later than that which had been claimed for the 



THE REVELATION AT THE BUSH. 201 

writing upon it. Now, such a water-mark is the phrase 
before us ; only in this case it goes to establish the anti- 
quity rather than the recentness of that of which it 
forms a part and into which it is inwoven. For the 
reference in it is to a personal experience. It was, 
therefore, quite natural that Moses should make it, and 
just as improbable that it should be made by another. 
The force of this consideration becomss all the stronger 
when we reflect that, unusual as the experience al- 
luded to undeniably was, there is not a single refer- 
ence to it in the whole compass of Hebrew literature 
but this. None of the writers at any one of the differ- 
ent dates which have been fixed upon by the higher 
critics for the production of this book has said a word 
that even hints at the vision which was given to Mo- 
ses at the bush. Neither in the psalms nor in the 
prophets, whether before or after the exile, do we find 
the slightest mention of it, and so if an unknown 
author in any one of those eras had been seeking to 
personate Moses, it is in the highest degree unlikely, 
judging by contemporary documents, thafc he would 
have sought to put these words into his mouth. So 
far as appears from the other books of the Hebrews, 
and however unaccountable to us it may seem, the rev- 
elation made by Jehovah at the bush had been very 
largely lost sight of by them, or, at all events, it was 
not a thing usually referred to among them, and there- 
fore it would have been unnatural for any one writing 
then, in the name of Moses, to speak in this casual 
and incidental way about it. But, on the other hand, 
how perfectly natural such an allusion is in the mouth 
of Moses himself! For he could never forget that 
day in Horeb. Beautifully has Matthew Henry said 
in this connection : " Many a time God had appeared 
to Moses, but now [that] he is just dying, he seems to 



202 



THE REVELATION AT THE BUSH, 



have the most pleasing remembrance of that which 
was the first time, when his acquaintance with the 
visions of the Almighty first began, and his corre- 
spondence with heaven was first settled ; that was 
a 'time of love' never to be forgotten." So it was 
quite artless and unpremeditated in Moses to speak 
here of " the good-will of him that dwelt in the bush," 
and the reference is what may be called a water-mark 
which proves the authenticity of the tribal blessings 
of which it forms a part. It is a little thing, such as 
no pretended Moses could have thought of, but per- 
fectly natural for Moses himself to say ; and by all the 
laws of evidence the very littleness of the thing makes 
it just so much the stronger as a proof. 

But, leaving this matter of criticism, let us go on to 
inquire what we are to understand by " the good-will 
of him that dwelt in the bush." You are familiar with 
the history. After forty years of shepherd-life in 
Midian, during which, by communion with God amid 
nature's wildest solitudes, Moses had wrought himself 
clear of that self-confident rashness which had marked 
his earliest attempt at advancing the cause of the 
Hebrews in Egypt, he was startled with the sight, in 
the desert, of a bush which seemed to be on fire and yet 
was not consumed. As he turned aside to look upon the 
strange spectacle, he heard a voice which he instinct- 
ively recognized as that of God commanding him to put 
off his shoes from his feet, because the place whereon 
he stood was holy ground ; and then, after long con- 
ference, he was constrained to accept a commission to 
deliver his kinsmen from the cruelty of the oppressor. 
There was here, therefore, a revelation both in symbol 
and in word. These two ran parallel to each other, or, 
rather, they were not so much two as one, and when 
Moses speaks of " him that dwelt in the bush," ha 



THE REVELATION AT TH3 BUSH. 



203 



must be understood as referring to the sum total of 
that truth regarding God which he received both from 
what he saw and from what he heard on the memo- 
rable occasion to which he refers. To get at that, there- 
fore, we shall have to consider both, that we may read 
each in the light of the other ; and when we do so, we 
shall discover not only that they mutually supplement 
each other, but, also, that they have a wondrously pre- 
cious significance for us. 

I. Let us take, first, the revelation through the 
symbol. Moses saw a bush apparently aflame, and 
yet unburned. The fire did no injury to the acacia 
branch, but only made the greenness of the leaves 
more conspicuous by the contrast. Now what was the 
meaning of this emblematic representation ? It has 
commonly been regarded as a figure of the Israelites 
in Egypt subjected to the fiery ordeal of persecution 
at the hand of Pharaoh ; and yet only multiplying the 
more the more they were oppressed. The church of 
God, so it is said, is here shown to be indestructible ; 
and this is proved by the martyrology of the ages. In 
perfect harmony, therefore, with this traditional in- 
terpretation of the symbol the Church of Scotland 
has taken for its seal a representation of the burning 
bush with the motto, " Nec tamen consumebatur " (" yet 
it was not consumed "). Now that is truth, and very 
important truth ; it is truth, too, which in any case 
will come to be included in a full exposition of the 
meaning of the symbol ; but still, though I put it forth 
in my discourses on the life of Moses as the chief 
thing taught by this divine object-lesson,* I have come 
to the conclusion, on mature reflection, that such an 



* See Moses the Law Giver, p. 47. 



204 



THE REVELATION AT THE BUSH. 



interpretation proceeds upon a wrong principle. It 
makes the fire represent the furnace of affliction in 
which the Hebrews were then burning ; but if that be 
so, where is the emblem of the divine presence which 
made holy the place in which it was manifested ? If 
God were there under a visible symbol at all (and we 
must believe that he was, for does not Moses here 
speak of him as "dwelling" in the bush?) then he was 
there invailed in the fire. Under the whole Mosaic 
economy, God was partially revealed and partially con- 
cealed in the glory flame-cloud which as vapor by day 
and flame by night hovered over the encampment of 
the tribes in the wilderness, and which at length set- 
tled into the Shekinah that dwelt between the cheru- 
bim in the holy of holies of the tabernacle. It is, 
therefore, much more thoroughly in harmony not only 
with the verbal communications made by Jehovah at 
the time to Moses, but also with the whole tenor of 
the Mosaic system, to take the fire here as the form 
under which Deity for the moment had made Himself 
visible rather than as the emblem of the furnace to 
which the Hebrews were exposed in their house of 
bondage. We have here, in a word, the first appear- 
ance of the Shekinah which ultimately overshadowed 
the mercy seat ; and in the command, " Draw not nigh 
hither," we have the forerunner of the vail which 
shrouded the innermost sanctuary from view, and kept 
all irreverent intruders from entering the place which 
was open only to the high priest, and to him only 
when he went in with the blood of the atonement- 
The fire, then, is the visible token of the divine pres- 
ence. 

But what of the bush ? The answer is already fur- 
nished by our interpretation of the glory flame. It is 
that in which the presence of God was dwelling, and so 



THE REVELATION AT THE BUSH. 



205 



we regard it as the emblem of him in whom the true 
Shekinah abode ; in whom the "Word became flesh ; 
in whose humanity alone deity could reside without; 
consuming it as it would certainly have consumed any 
other humanity, and whose glory as of the Only Be- 
gotten of the Father men beheld " full of grace, and full 
of truth." And we may, perhaps, see a corroboration 
of the truth of this view in the predictions of a later 
day which spoke after this fashion, " Behold the man 
whose name is the Branch ! " " Behold I will bring 
forth my servant the Branch." Even as afterwards in 
the tabernacle one of the great meanings of its symbol- 
ism was Incarnation ; so we have the same thing here in 
the bush; and thus the theophany then vouchsafed to 
Moses takes its place in the line of those anticipations, 
as I may call them, of the advent, of which we have so 
many in the Old Testament, and especially reminds us 
of the appearance of the Peniel angel to Jacob, and 
that of the Captain of the host of the Lord to Joshua. 
These were all alike the forecast shadows of him in 
whom God was " manifest in the flesh," and each had 
its own light to shed on the wondrous Incarnation for 
which they were all preparatory. This view of the 
matter is confirmed by the expressions used in the his- 
tory to which my text refers, for there we read, " the 
angel of the Lord appeared to him in the flame of 
fire out of the midst of a bush " ; and " God called 
unto him out of the midst of the bush," so that no 
created angel can be meant, but indeed " the Angel of 
the Covenant," who is the fellow of the Almighty, and 
who for us men and for our salvation became Incar- 
nate in the Son of Mary. 

But God in Christ is thereby also in the church, 
which is the body of Christ, and as such he is the 
source of its indestructibility. Here, therefore, we 



206 THE REVELATION AT THE BUSH. 

get at tlie thought which has commonly been con- 
nected with this revelation at the bush ; but it is sub- 
ordinate to the main teaching, and indeed an inference 
from it ; and it may be carried still farther, since God 
in Christ is thereby also in every individual believer, 
for is not the Christian a temple of the Holy Ghost at 
once purified and protected by the flame of the in- 
dwelling Spirit ? Now, if all this be true, the good- 
will of him that dwelt in the bush is, in New Testa- 
ment phraseology, " the grace " or favor " of the Lord 
Jesus Christ," or, which comes to the same thing, of 
God in Jesus Christ. 

II. But now let us look at the conference of this 
divine angel with Moses at the bush, and see how 
this view is confirmed. In reading over these two 
chapters of Exodus — the third and fourth — we are 
impressed with the following things concerning the 
mysterious One who spoke to Moses out of the midst 
of the bush : 

1. In the first place, he calls himself by the incom- 
municable name. When Moses, shrinking from the 
magnitude of the task laid upon him, wished to know 
what he should say if the people to whom he went 
should ask, Who sent you ? what is his name ? this 
answer was given him : " I AM that I am. Thus shalt 
thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent 
me unto you.' 5 I am — it is the expression of inde- 
pendent self-existence — appropriate to none but Deity, 
whose consciousness is an eternal present. The 
thought is overwhelming ; yet, overwhelming as it is, 
it is also steadying and comforting in its influence, and 
I do not wonder that years after Moses had heard these 
words at the bush, and when he saw his fellow-men 
falling in death by his side, he found his consolation 



THE REVELATION AT THE BUSH. 



207 



in the truth which it revealed, and said in his psalm : 
" Lord, thou hast been our dwelling-place in all gen- 
erations. Before the mountains were brought forth, 
or even thou hadst formed the earth and the world, 
even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art — God." 
But what I am more concerned to show you now is 
that in the New Testament we find the same claim 
advanced by the Lord Jesus Christ ; for when the 
Jews said to him : " Thou art not yet fifty years old, 
and hast thou seen Abraham ? " he replied : " Be- 
fore Abraham was born I am." And indeed, as I have 
more than once showed you,* we have in the fourth 
gospel a series of similar I ams, whereby Jesus re- 
vealed himself to those around him as the Jehovah ot 
the Old Testament dwelling in human nature, even as 
here the glory flame abode in the bush. You remem- 
ber them well. They are such as these : " I am the 
bread of life ; " " I AM the light of the world ; " I am 
the Good Shepherd;" "I am the door;" "I am the 
resurrection and the Life ; " "I am the way, the truth 
and the Life ; " "I am the true vine ; " and the time 
when, through these announcements, a soul perceives 
the Deity of Jesus is for that soul the supreme mo- 
ment of its existence when, like Moses here, it re- 
ceives its commission to its proper life work. So 
again, in the opening chapter of the Book of Revela- 
tion, we have the Lord speaking of himself in the 
like fashion, thus : "I am Alpha and Omega, the 
beginning and the ending, which is, and which was, 
and which is to come," while the author of the 
Epistle to the Hebrews has crystallized the same 
truth into this dogmatic statement : " Jesus Christ, 
the same yesterday, to-day, and forever." So here 



* See "The Limitations of Life and Other Sermons," p. 23. 



208 



THE REVELATION AT THE BUSH. 



again we find that the I am in the bush is the an- 
ticipation of the Jesus whom we know and worship 
as our Redeemer, and whose " good-will " is that favor 
in which is life. 

2. But, in the second place, we find from this con- 
ference at the bush that the divine angel who spoke 
with Moses there is the covenant God, for he said : 
" I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, 
the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." In his 
reasoning with the Sadducees of his day, the Saviour 
drew from these words an argument for the resur- 
rection of the body; for as God is not the God of 
the dead but of the living, it must follow that Abra- 
ham, Isaac, and Jacob were still in existence when 
God so described himself, and as such would yet 
have their humanity perfected and glorified. The 
Sadducees grounded their objection to the resurrec- 
tion of the body on their rejection of the immortality 
of the soul, and the Lord answers in this way the 
underlying heresy of his antagonists, leaving it to his 
own resurrection to prove the falsity of that which 
they had built thereon. My business now, however, 
is not with that aspect of the words, but rather with 
the covenant relation which they express ; and we 
know that on a memorable occasion Christ startled his 
hearers with the assertion that many should come 
from the East and from the West, and should sit down 
with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of 
heaven — words which clearly imply that the kingdom 
which he founded, and of which he is the head, is the 
carrying out of the covenant made with the old patri- 
arch, so that he claims to be the God of Abraham, 
Isaac and Jacob. To the same effect are Paul's words 
in the Epistle to the Galatians, when he says : " They 
which are of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham," 



THE REVELATION AT THE BUSH. 



209 



implying thai Abraham's faith in Jehovah, as revealed 
to him, is the same in its nature, its object, and its 
effects as our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ ; that is 
to say, that he who revealed himself as the God of 
Abraham is he whom we now know as the Lord Jesus 
Christ. 

3. But in the third place we find from this 
conference at the bush, that the divine angel who 
spoke to Moses is the omniscient God who knows all 
his people's troubles and comes to their deliverance. 
He said : " I have surely seen the afflictions of my peo- 
ple which are in Egypt and have heard their cry by 
reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorroAvs, 
and I am come down to deliver them out of the hand 
of the Egyptians." Pharaoh had long oppressed 
them, making their lives bitter with hard bondage, 
and there seemed to be no divine protest against his 
procedure. It looked almost as if God had forgotten 
the Hebrews, and for generations they were cruelly 
maltreated. But he was not unmindful of them, and 
in the fullness of time he sent Moses to be their eman- 
cipator. Now, have we not here in miniature, and on 
a small scale, the very same thing which we see on the 
wider area of the world, and in the ampler scope of 
human history as a whole ? For centuries God al- 
lowed the Pharaohs to grind the Hebrews in slavery. 
"We cannot understand his silence. His forbear- 
ance with evil and injustice is to us incomprehensi- 
ble. Yet it is a precisely parallel case to his treat- 
ment of the human race as a whole, only for " centuries " 
there we must read millenniums. For long he allowed 
sin to be apparently triumphant. He did not inter- 
pose to check it among the nations generally until 
the advent. As Paul said to the philosophers at 
Athens, " the times of this ignorance God overlooked," 



210 



THE REVELATION AT THE BUSH. 



and it was not until the fullness of the time that he 
came to deliver men from its curse. "We cannot 
understand the delay ; but it is in the case of the 
world no more incomprehensible than it was in that 
of the Hebrews. True, in the latter the years of the 
delay were not so numerous, and the people affected 
were not so many, but the principle in both is the 
same, and if the Hebrews did not reject their deliver- 
ance because it was so long in coming, why should 
we refuse salvation because Christ did not come to 
the world sooner with its blessings ? More especially 
as, when he did come, he came with a compassion 
identical with that expressed for the Hebrews at the 
bush. Listen to these words : " The Son of Man is 
come to seek and to save that which was lost." " The 
Son of Man came not to be ministered unto but to 
minister, and to give his life a ransom for many." " I 
am come that ye may have life and may have it more 
abundantly." Are they not all in harmony with this ? 
" I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of 
the Egyptians." May we not infer, therefore, that 
they came from the same heart, and that the Jehovah 
of the bush is the Jesus of the cross ? 

4. But, in the fourth place, we see from this confer- 
ence at the bush that the divine angel who spoke to Mo- 
ses there is the long-suffering God who bears with the 
waywardness of his people. How tenderly he treated 
Moses on that occasion ! From the extreme of rash- 
ness the son of Amram had recoiled to that of timid- 
ity ; and he who, forty years before, attempted to run 
without being sent, now seeks to decline his commis- 
sion altogether. He is profuse in excuses, such as 
that he was unworthy of the honor which was offered 
him ; that he was unable to answer the Israelites 
if they should ask him " Who sent you ? " : that 



THE BEVELATION AT THE BUSH. 



211 



even if he went the people would not believe him ; 
and that he was not eloquent, but slow of speech 
and of a slow tongue. These were the pretexts which 
he put forward in order, if possible, to evade the 
duty that was laid upon him, but out of them all 
God nourished him into such strength that he went 
at length, and became the leader of the Exodus. 
Now, it is scarcely possible for any one to read the 
account of this conference without being reminded 
of our Lord's training of his chosen apostles ; how 
he bore with their weaknesses and waywardnesses, 
teaching them as they were able to receive it, and 
bringing them up, at last, to such a point that Peter 
had to say, " We cannot but speak the things which 
we have seen and heard," and Paul had to declare 
that necessity was laid upon him, yea, woe was unto 
him if he preached not the gospel ! In this confer- 
ence, in the desert of Midian, we have thus, I make 
bold to say, an anticipation and synopsis, under Old 
Testament forms, of the whole training of the twelve 
by Jesus for their work, as it is recorded in the four 
gospels, and so the inference is inevitable that the Je- 
hovah of the bush is the Jesus of Nazareth. 

5. To mention only one point more, this divine 
angel is the God who promises to be with his people 
in all their history. When Moses said, " Who am I 
that I should go to Pharaoh ? " the voice out of the 
bush answered, " Certainly I will be with thee." So, 
after Jesus had said to his followers, " Go ye, there- 
fore, and disciple all nations, baptizing them in the 
name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy 
Ghost ; teaching them to observe ail things whatso- 
ever I have commanded you " ; and when, perhaps, he 
saw on their countenances an expression of consterna- 
tion at the magnitude of the charge which he had 



212 



THE REVELATION AT THE BUSH. 



given them, lie added, " And lo ! I am with yon alwayi 
even nnto the end of the world." A large promise 
which only Deity would dare to make, and which, in 
its likeness to the words addressed to Moses — " Cer- 
tainly I will be with thee " — indicates that it came 
from the same divine source. Thns, whether we look 
at the significance of the symbol in itself considered, 
or at the conference which was carried on in connec- 
tion with it, we are warranted, I think, if not required, 
to come to the conclusion that the Jehovah of the 
bush is the Jesus of the New Testament, of whom 
it is written that "he shall save his people from 
their sins." "The good- will of him that dwelt in the 
bush" is, therefore, equivalent to "the grace of our 
Lord Jesus Christ " ; and so, every time the apostolic 
benediction is pronounced, the pastor supplicates for 
his people precisely the same spiritual blessing that 
Moses here requested for the descendants of Joseph, 
along with, and supplementary to, the temporal pros- 
perity on which he dwells so lovingly and long. For 
worldly wealth is of little value if we have not the di- 
vine good-will with it. If we are poor that good- will 
is of itself an ample portion ; and if we are rich, it will 
make our riches harmless to us, by teaching us to turn 
them into means of blessing to others ; while, on 
the other hand, if we despise the favors of our cove- 
nant God, and seek only the wealth of earth, we shall 
ultimately lose both, and find ourselves at last, like 
the descendants of Ephraim and Manasseh, hopelessly 
captive in the grasp of our destroyer. Above every- 
thing else, therefore, and along with everything else, 
let us seek this favor by faith in and faithfulness to 
the Lord Jesus, and we shall discover, as we go on, 
that he is true to us in every emergency and through 
every vicissitude. 



THE KEVELATTON AT TH3 BUSH. 



213 



For I must not neglect to add that in the mouth 
of Moses the words "The good- will of him that 
dwelt in the bush " had, in this blessing of the 
tribe of Joseph just before he died, a far richer 
significance than they could have had on then when, 
after having seen the great sight and heard the great 
words, he turned away from the desert of Midian, and 
took his journey into Egypt. He went on there in 
faith, but now he could look back upon a rich expe- 
rience. Between the bush and the plains of Moab 
lay forty years of the fullest realization of all that Je- 
hovah had promised, and so he commended Joseph's 
children to one whom he knew to be faithful to his 
word. Had he not been to Egypt and brought out 
his people into freedom ? Had he not enjoyed closest 
fellowship with God as a man talketh with his friend? 
Had he not been directed by him in every difficulty 
and provided for by him in every strait ? Whom he 
had proved, therefore, they might trust. The Lord 
who had with him stood the strain of the Exodus, and 
the test of the wilderness wanderings, would not fail 
them in their time of need. He had been with him, 
and he would be with them. And is not this true of our 
J esus yet ? Whom has he failed ? When has he broken 
his word ? Who dares to say that he has gone to him 
and been cast out ? Is it not the unvarying testimony 
of his people in all generations that they never found 
him wanting ? Come, therefore, and prove his good- 
will now to you. For, while there is so much that is 
parallel to the gospel in this conference between Je- 
hovah and Moses at Midian, there is in one point a 
marked difference between the two. The Jehovah of 
the bush said, " Draw not nigh hither," but the Jesus 
of the cross says, " Come unto me, all ye that labor 
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." But 



214 



THE REVELATION AT THE BUSH. 



that is just the great distinction between the old dis- 
pensation and the new, and it was rendered necessary 
by the circumstances of the times. In those ancient 
days the world was not ready to receive the gospel 
invitation. There needed yet a long education before 
men would listen to it either with patience or appre- 
ciation, and so the truth, while preserved among them 
in the figurative system of Judaism, needed also to be 
protected from them by the restrictions which hedged 
that system round. These restrictions were like the 
horn framework of the lantern through which the light 
shone, no doubt, only dimly, but by which, also, it 
was kept from being extinguished by the rude blasts 
of idolatry and immorality. Now, however, they have 
served their purpose and are no longer needed. The 
vail of the temple has been rent asunder ; the temple 
itself has disappeared ; and, instead of the " draw not 
nigh," we may hear the " come unto me " ; "for in him 
we have boldness and access with confidence by the 
faith of him." " Whosoever will," therefore, let him 
come and claim this divine good-will. Any one may 
get it through faith in Jesus, and he who secures it 
" has chosen the good part which shall not be taken 
from him." Did not the multitude of the heavenly host 
sing in the hearing of Bethlehem's shepherds, " Glory 
to God in the highest ; peace on earth, and good-will 
to men ? " — to men, not to the sons of Joseph merely, 
nor to the Hebrew nation alone, but to men. Come, 
then, O burdened one, whatever thy load may be, 
whether sin, or sorrow, or perplexity, or want, or 
whatever else, come and claim thy share in this 
blessed benison for humanity, and then thou shalt 
realize how much is meant by "the good-will of him 
who dwelt in the bush." 



March 5, 1882. 



TRUE GREATNESS. 



Matthew xx. 26, 27, 28. Whosoever will be great among you, 
let him be your minister, and whosoever will be chief among you 
let him be your servant, even as the Son of Man came not to be min- 
istered unto, but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many. 

Ambition is natural to man. The desire of great- 
ness is inherent in every human spirit, and even the 
schoolboy's heart throbs with responsive enthusiasm 
when he reads the Homeric hero's injunction to his 
son, " always to be the best and superior to all others.' 7 
Depravity, indeed, has turned this principle to evil 
account, but it was implanted in us for the noblest 
purposes, and it is, even in our present state, a witness 
to the immortal progress for which we were originally 
designed. Next to the having of a wrong ambition, 
the worst thing that can befall a man is to have no 
ambition at all, for then the mainspring of his soul is 
broken, and his energy and elevation are at an end. It 
will not do, therefore, to indulge in wholesale and indis- 
criminate denunciation of this desire. It belongs to man 
as man, and what we have to do with it is not to seek 
its extirpation, but to give it a spiritual character, and 
turn it into a direction that will benefit others rather 
than ourselves. Just thus, indeed, it is that the Lord 
Jesus deals with it. He does not seek to destroy any- 
thing that is of the essence of our humanity. His 
design in his redemptive work is to purify man's na- 
ture as a whole ; and therefore, far from uprooting am- 
bition, he transfigures it by making it the spur that 



216 



TEUE GREATNESS. 



stirs us on, not to self-aggrandizement, but to holiness 
and beneficence. 

To see that this is a true statement of the case 
you have but to look at the incidents in connection 
with which the words of my text were originally 
spoken. The mother of James and John, instigated 
apparently by her sons, requested of the Lord that 
when he came to his kingdom these two disciples 
might sit, one on his right hand and the other 
on his left. To this he replied, not by directly 
refusing the petition, but by showing that from the 
nature of his kingdom they could pass to its high 
places of honor only by drinking of the cup which he 
had himself to drain, and submitting to the baptism 
with which he was himself to be baptized. But the 
mere making of such a request on their behalf by 
their mother wounded the pride of the other ten dis- 
ciples, and so to make his meaning still more plain, 
and restore harmony among his followers, he went on 
to say that in that spiritual system of which he was 
the head it was not to be as it is among the kingdoms 
of the earth, in which the measure of a man's dominion 
over his fellows is the measure of his greatness. His 
kingdom was not to be of this world in any respect, 
but its special and peculiar feature — marking its 
radical difference from the monarchies of earth — 
was, that whereas in them greatness was a thing of 
rule, under him it was to be a matter of service. His 
words may be thus paraphrased : " There needs be no 
strife between you on this point ; indeed, if you rightly 
understood my kingdom there would be none ; for 
even if I were to exalt James and John to the posts of 
honor which have been asked for them, they would be 
so exalted not to exercise dominion over you but to 
be your servants, for that is the principle of my ad' 



TRUE GREATNESS. 



217 



ministration. The highest is the highest because he 
ministers to the lowliest. You have called it my king- 
dom, and you have said well, for it is mine ; yet even I 
am here, not to be ministered unto, but to minister, 
and to give my life a ransom for many." 

Now observe what all this amounts to. The Saviour 
does not say that is a wrong thing to desire to be the 
chief, or to wish to be great. He does not seek to erad- 
icate ambition, but rather to show what its true function 
in regenerated manhood is to be. He takes that passion 
which, in the breasts of such men as Nebuchadnezzar, 
Xerxes, Alexander and the Caesars, had covered the 
earth with misery, and he transmutes it into a princi- 
ple by the operation of which, in the hearts and lives 
of his followers, the world would yet be blessed " from 
the rising of the sun to the going down of the same." 
He defines what true greatness is, and bids his disci- 
ples be ambitious after that. He substitutes the 
greatness of love for the love of greatness ; and to 
those who are eager for power he preaches the might 
of service ; while with a sublime egoism, to be ex- 
plained only by his consciousness of deity, he holds 
himself up as the brightest exemplification of his 
words. Let us meditate a little upon these striking 
sayings, and we may find in them some wholesome 
hints as to the nature, the model, and the motive of 
true greatness. 

I. They have something to tell us, in the first 
place, concerning the nature of true greatness. What 
is greatness ? Scarcely two persons among us would 
give the same reply to that question. All would 
admit that it denotes pre-eminence, but each would 
have his own preference as to the department in which 
was to be manifested. Some would associate it with 

10 



218 



TRUE GREATNESS. 



power, some with courage, some with eloquence, and 
some, perhaps, with wealth ; yet each would think of 
it as conferring an advantage on its possessor, and so 
putting others at a corresponding disadvantage. Here, 
however, it is connected with that love which works 
not for its own, interest but for the benefit of others. 
Still, that we may not be one-sided in a matter of so 
much importance, we must remember that as Jesus 
used the word " service," holiness was combined with 
the love out of which it sprung. So we come to the 
result that the really great man is he whom holiness 
and love combine to inspire for the service of his 
generation by the will of God. How different such 
a definition of a great man is from that commonly 
current among us must be evident to every one. I 
willingly admit, indeed, that now men's judgments on 
this subject have been considerably affected by the 
principles of the gospel ; but still the prevalent idea 
of greatness is very far from being identical with that 
which I have deduced from the Saviour's words before 
me. We crown the man in whom we behold intel- 
lectual power that has won the success of position or 
of wealth, but we too rarely think of goodness as being 
the highest form of greatness. Now, though Christ 
does not ignore intellect, or even riches, he yet regards 
these things, and all things like these, as but instru- 
ments, and he is, in the gospel sense of the word, the 
greatest who uses all such gifts cr possessions in the 
service of mankind. " He that will be greatest among 
you, let him be your servant." 

If, then, this view of the case be correct, one or two 
inferences of importance follow from it. 

1. For one thing, it is evident that he who wins this 
greatness does noi attain it at the expense of others. 
Many run after the prizes of the world, and not unfre- 



TEUE GKEATNESS. 



219 



quently those who bear them away have succeeded in 
doing so more by scheming to keep others from getting 
them, than by fair and honest establishment of their 
own merits. Men rise very often by pushing others 
down. Here, however, the prize is won by helping 
others up. Intrigue, oppression, "coups d'etat" 
are alike unknown in such a rivalry as is here sug- 
gested, for he who is exalted on this principle to the 
place of honor has already won the gratitude of those 
above whom he is elevated, and is where he is with 
their highest approval. The pursuit of great things, 
when these are sought simply for one's self, leads not 
seldom to the violation of the principles of truth and 
justice and benevolence, and ends full often in bit- 
terest disappointment ; but the ambition for the great- 
ness that consists in service stimulates to deeds of 
self-sacrifice, and has at last the reward of that charity 
which is twice blessed, because " blessing him that 
gives and him that takes." 

2. It follows, further, from what has been said, 
that we may win this greatness anywhere. The 
poet musing in the country churchyard speaks of 
some as slumbering there who, had the way been 
opened to them, might have become famous in 
their country's annals ; and it is plain that even 
in a republic which proclaims that all men are 
born equal, the paths to worldly honor are greatly 
circumscribed. Everybody has not the intellect of a 
Webster or the genius of a Henry as his birth capital, 
conferred by God. The poet is born, not made ; the 
same thing is true of the orator ; and unless some 
war should break out, which God prevent ! there can 
be no field for military glory. But here — in service — 
is a department always open ; open also to the poorest 
and the wealthiest ; to the least intelligent and the 



220 



TRUE GREATNESS. 



most intellectual; to the youngest and the oldest; 
open in the family and the church ; in the neighbor- 
hood and in the world ; yea, whoever a man may be, 
wherever he may go, and whatever may be his re- 
sources, he may be always the means of helping others, 
and by that may win at last the commendation and 
the crown. To bid you aim after merely worldly 
positions would be to entail certain disappointment 
on many of you. The peripatetic orators who visit 
our public schools and tell the boys before them 
that there may be future Presidents of the Republic 
among them, forget that such an honor can fall at 
most on only eight men in a generation. Yery few 
of those who begin the study of the law, fired with the 
ambition which the thought that " there is always 
room at the top " inspires, ever reach the top. Not 
every one who has sought after wealth — though that 
is perhaps the easiest thing of all to get — has ob- 
tained it ; and in the race of life you may see multi- 
tudes lying on the course exhausted and forlorn, 
having given up all hope of reaching the goal. Thus, 
in all these departments, multitudes are sure to be 
disappointed. But we may all get this gospel great- 
ness. Opportunities for winning it lie all around ; 
and so in urging you to seek for it I am starting you 
out on no uncertain quest, nor sending you to chase a 
deceitful marsh-fire. You may attain that which I set 
before you, and you will attain it, if only your thoughts 
are set on serving others and your hearts are filled 
with love. 

3. But it follows, thirdly, that this greatness 
is satisfying to its possessor. Literature is full 
of the sighings of successful men over the disap- 
pointment which even success has brought to them. 
The enjoyment of life, on the world's pla^ is in the 



TRUE GREATNESS. 



221 



pursuit. When the prize is won it ceases to charm. 
That which, in the distance, seemed goodly fruit, 
crunches in the mouth like ashes. No abiding 
happiness can be found either in literary fame or 
political position, or stores of wealth, in themselves, 
but there is always satisfaction in serving our genera- 
tion ; and he who, by the grace of God, seeks to make 
the world the better for his presence will from that 
effort have the holiest joy. He may, indeed, be mis- 
construed by his fellows ; he may be ridiculed as an 
enthusiast ; he may be reproached for what others 
call his improvidence ; and while he has been think- 
ing of serving Christ in his people, some will affirm 
that he has been only the more cunningly aiming for 
his own advancement, but he will have within him the 
testimony of a good conscience, and above him the 
complacency of an approving God ; and the day will 
come when his worth shall be recognized and his 
title to men's gratitude and affection conclusively 
established. This greatness bears investigation. 
There is nothing in the means by which it has been 
acquired to create remorse, while the happiness of 
him who has won it is redoubled by that of those 
in whose service it has been gained. What a 
drawback to the conqueror's joy is the appear- 
ance of the battle-field after an engagement ? And who 
among us has not felt his eyes grow dim as he has 
read of the great captain saying, as he walked among 
the dead and dying on the night after his most brill- 
iant success, " Alas ! alas ! next to a defeat, the sad - 
dest thing is a victory at such a cost." But there is 
no such shadowing sorrow attendant on the greatness 
to which Jesus summons us. Its achievements are in 
the way of saving men, not of destroying them ; aud 
in the promotion of their highest interests it finds its 



222 



TRUE GREATNESS. 



abiding joy. Here, therefore, is an ambition that is 
free from the evils that commonly accompany the 
workings of that natural principle. It rises without 
thrusting others down ; it finds its field of operation 
in every department of life ; and it seeks its own en- 
joyment in promoting the happiness of others. Be it 
ours, my brethren, to aspire after the greatness which 
the Lord has here described. Let others have the 
prizes of the world if they will, choose ye this crown 
of never-fading glory ! The highest commendation one 
can earn is this — " He hath done what he could " ; and 
the noblest life record is that which comes nearest to 
his of whom it was said that " he went about doing 
good." That is fame, though no earthly herald may 
trumpet it abroad, for Christ shall proclaim it on the 
day of days before the assembled universe. 

II. But the text has something to say to us, in the 
second place, about the model of greatness : " Ever! 
as the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, 
but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for 
many." In one point of view the greatness of God is 
that of service. All things depend on him. He holds 
the planets in their orbits. He rules the changing 
year. " In him we live and move and have our being." 
He gives us breath, and food, and raiment. The tiniest 
insect fluttering in the sunbeam is upheld by him, and 
a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his care. 
He is thus, in a very true sense of the word, the ser- 
vant of the creatures whom he has called into being and 
sustains. Yea, when we come to think it out, we shall 
see that the greatest inventions, even of recent days, in 
the way of applied science are just so many new meth- 
ods in which we may avail ourselves of God's service, 
and take advantage of his ministry. I speak it rever- 



TRUE GREATNES3. 



223 



ently, yet it is most true, that every power in nature 
is in the last resort the power of God, and so in steam, 
electricity, etc., we are but in different ways taking 
advantage of God's goodness as a servant. Thus 
the highest of all is the servant of all. But, striking 
as the nobleness and the divinityof service appear when 
we look thus at the universal ministry of God, we 
have a more impressive illustration of the same thing 
in the mission and work of the Lord Jesus. In crea- 
tion and providence God lays nothing aside. He has 
made no sacrifice in either of these. He has not — if I 
may so express it — put himself about to serve his creat- 
ures. Everything in nature is done with ease. Noth- 
ing is difficult to omnipotence. But in redemption it 
was different. To deliver man from the guilt and 
power of sin it was needed that the Son of God should 
become a man, and, after a life of obedience, should 
submit to a death of shame ; and there was sacrifice ; 
there was a giving up of that which even Godhead 
felt to be infinitely valuable, and when that was done 
Jehovah rendered the highest service to humanity, 
and gave a pattern of the loftiest greatness. 

It deserves to be remarked, however, that though 
the point of the reference made here by Jesus to his 
death lies in its power as an example, he uses lan- 
guage concerning it which clearly implies that it was 
redemptive and sacrificial. It was the " ransom " or 
price which had to be paid for the declaration of Je- 
hovah's righteousness in the forgiveness of believing 
men ; and the use of this term here as it were incident- 
ally, when allusion is specially made to quite another 
side of the subject, is a valuable testimony from his own 
lips to the substitutionary nature of his death. But, in- 
deed, the same thing must come out even when we 
regard the giving up of his life as an example ; for if 



224 



TRUE GREATNESS. 



there were no righteous necessity for his dying as a 
means of saving men, then it becomes a mere display 
of sentiment, a throwing away of that which, without 
detriment to any interest, might have "been kept ; and 
that could be no proper model of any sort for men. 
"When, however, we reflect that only by his giving him- 
self up to death in the sinner's room could any one be 
saved, then we see in his voluntary surrender of himself 
to the cross the noblest act of service of which the uni- 
verse has been the scene. Christ came into the world 
to die, and in his death he served us more effectually 
than others could have done by their lives. But it 
must not be forgotten, either, that his death was but 
the climax and consummation of a life of ministering 
— the last and greatest act in a series of the sublimest 
services ever rendered by one person to others. He 
was continually ministering. He was always at the 
call of weakness, or of suffering or of want. Every 
one of his miracles was benevolent. He never thought 
of his own ease, or allowed regard for himself to stand 
in the way of the manifestation of his love to others. 
" Even Christ pleased not himself." He sought no 
personal aggrandizement. He coveted no gold or 
silver. He desired no earthly glory. But wherever 
a sick one needed healing, or a weak one required 
strength, or a weeping one sought solace, there he 
was to be found doing appropriate service. When he 
sat exhausted on the well of Sychar, he denied himself 
both repose and refreshment that he might guide an 
erring woman back to the way of holiness. When 
with his twelve apostles he went for retirement to 
the eastern shore of Genesaret, he did not allow 
consideration for himself to keep him from instruct- 
ing the multitudes that persistently followed him ; 
and he added to that kindness the working of a mir- 



TRUE GREATNESS. 



225 



acle for their feeding. Nay, even when the dark- 
ness of Calvary was closing over him he forgot his 
own agony as he heard the prayer of the penitent who 
hung beside him ; and in these words of answer, " To- 
day shalt thou be with me in paradise," we have one 
of the sublimest instances of self-abnegation which 
even his history contains. This is the model of the 
highest greatness. Be not appalled, I pray you, by 
the purity of its perfection, but seek day by day to 
come nearer to the height of its ever ascending ideal. 
Lay aside all inferior standards. Seek to imitate no 
meaner ensample. We dwarf our efforts by consent- 
ing to accept less exalted models. Let us, therefore, 
keep ever " looking unto Jesus," and, like Paul, make 
this our motto : " This one thing I do : forgetting those 
things which are behind and reaching forth unto those 
things which are before, I press toward the mark for 
the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." 
It may entail upon us the drinking of many a bitter 
cup, and the enduring of many a fiery baptism, but if 
we press forward in this holy quest, then, at the end, 
for us, too, as for Paul, there will be " the crown of 
righteousness which the Lord, the righteous judge, 
shall give us at that day." 

III. But this text has something to say to us finally 
about the motive to true greatness. We are to seek it 
for the sake of him who gave himself for us. I do not 
find, indeed, any distinct expression of this thought 
in the verses before us. Jesus does not say in so 
many words, "Serve one another, because I have 
served you ; " but still the reference which he makes 
to his death, as an example, brings before every 
Christian's mind the magnitude of the obligation under 
which Christ has laid him. He died for us. But for 
10* 



226 



TEUE GREATNESS. 



liis death our deliverance would have been impossibla 
Through his sacrifice our salvation has been secured. 
Thus we owe everything to him. Our present privi- 
leges and our future hopes ail center in him. If he is 
anything to us at all, he is to us " all and in all." And 
the great question of our hearts, in view of his ser- 
vices to us, is " What shall I render unto the Lord for 
all his benefits ? " Now, his answer to that inquiry is 
virtually this : " By love serve one another. He is 
the most deeply grateful to me who is the most self- 
sacrificing minister to the temporal and spiritual ne- 
cessities of others. "Wherever you see another stand- 
ing in need of your assistance as much as you were 
needing mine when I came to help you by dying in 
your stead, help him, and that will be thanking me, 
for * inasmuch as ye do it to one of the least of these 
ye do it unto me.' " We are, thus, to see Christ's 
image in every sick and sorrowful and suffering one ; 
and we are to show our gratitude to him for his death 
in our behalf by laboring to serve them in the most 
self-denying manner. Thus gratitude is the source 
of greatness, and so this Christian ambition, alike in 
its root and in its fruits, is transfigured and becomes 
a totally different thing from that which is commonly 
so called. Behold how it showed itself in Paul. I 
call him, all in all, the greatest man whom the Chris- 
tian church has yet produced. For activity, for self- 
sacrifice, for constant devotion to the good of others, 
he stands unrivaled among the sons of men, and if 
you ask him to explain it all, he will reply in these 
autobiographic words : " I am crucified with Christ, 
nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me, 
and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the 
faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave him- 
self for me ; " or these : " Alway bearing about in the 



TRUE GREATNESS. 



227 



body the dying of the Lord Jesus that the life, also, of 
Jesus might be made manifest in my body." Now, if 
we would emulate his greatness, we must follow the 
same plan. W e must begin by receiving Jesus Christ 
into our hearts as our Redeemer, and we must go on 
by maintaining our love to him and our confidence in 
him until at length self shall be swallowed up in him, 
and our one absorbing, overmastering ambition will 
become that we may reproduce, as far as we may, 
Christ's own self-sacrifice on our lowlier level and 
within our more limited area. 

I have seen a picture which, by the genius of the 
artist, told at least one chapter of the story of a poor 
man who was confined for years in a cold, dark dungeon. 
There was but one little opening in the wall,and through 
that a sunbeam came for but a few minutes every day 
making a white patch of light on the opposite side of 
the cell. Often and often the lonely man gazed on that 
little spot which was thus daily illuminated, and at 
length a purpose to make something on it grew within 
his soul. Groping on the ground, which was his only 
floor, he found a nail and a stone, and with these for 
chisel and mallet he set to work on that bright little 
patch for the brief time of every day that it was kissed 
by the sunlight, until at length he brought out upon it in 
sculptured relief a rude representation of Christ upon 
the cross ! Let us imitate that prisoner ! Our sphere 
may be circumscribed ; our life-chamber may be dark ; 
our surroundings may be dreary ; yet if we be truly 
set on following Christ, Ave shall discover some tiny 
chink through which the sunshine of his guiding prov- 
idence shall come ; and on the spot where its direct- 
ing light shall fall, let us, with such means as we find 
' at our hand, hew out, not in cold stone but in living 
love, the lil'eness of the sacrifice of Christ. Thus shall 



228 



TRUE GREATNESS. 



we attain that loftiest greatness whereof Jesus has 
to-day been speaking to us ! 

1 *' For lie before whose scepter 

Tlie nations rise or fall, 
Who gives no least commandment 

But come to pass it shall, 
Said that he who would be greatest 

Should be servant unto all. 



And in conflict with the evil 
Which his bright creation mars, 

Laid lie not aside the scepter 

Which can reach to all the stars ? 

Of the service which he rendered 
See on his hands the scars I " 



May 15, 1881. 



THE SEAL AND EARNEST OF THE 
SPIRIT. 



II. Cor. i. 22. Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of 
the Spirit in our hearts. 

It is, I fear, too true of us Christians in these days, 
that though we are living under the dispensation of 
the Holy Spirit, we make far too little of his opera- 
tions, alike in our thoughts, our discourses and our 
prayers. The place of that divine agent in the econ- 
omy of salvation is equally important with that of the 
Father and the Son, and yet in our meditations and 
experience he has too largely dropped out of our con- 
sideration. Many treatises have been written on the 
love of the Father, scarcely one has been devoted to 
the love of the Spirit. We are never weary of extol- 
ling the work of the Son, and prayer is made to him 
continually; but little i3 said, comparatively, about 
the Holy Ghost, and few petitions are presented unto 
him. 

The hymnology of the church, which is an un- 
erring witness to the quality of Christian experience 
through all the centuries, attests that while many of 
those sacred songs which are most popular show forth 
the praises of the Father and the Son, there are but 
few which worthily express our obligations to the 
Spirit. A learned editor in this city has compiled 
into a large volume entitled " Christ in Song " a great 
number of the finest lyrics which tell of Jesus and his 
work ; but a similar collection by another hand under 
the name of " The Holy Ghost in Song " reveals that 



230 THE SEAL AND EARNEST OF THE SPIRIT. 

in this department our praise has been meager in its 
volume, and for the most part only medium in its 
quality. Of the four hundred and twelve hymns con- 
tained in Lord Selborne's " Book of Praise," only 
fifteen are arranged under the heading of " God the 
Eoly Ghost," and even of these there are five which 
have no special reference to the Spirit, and might as 
well have been placed under some other division. In 
our own hymn-book — which in this regard may be 
taken as a fair sample of our praise-books generally-- 
out of thirteen hundred and fifty-seven hymns only 
forty-six are marked in the index as being either 
addressed to the Holy Spirit, or having any reference 
to his work. 

This may be to many a startling statement, but it is 
the simple truth ; and it seems to me to indicate the 
quarter in which the source of that which must be 
deplored by all of us as an evil is to be found. For 
hymnology grows out of experience. The church 
sings that alone which its members have realized as 
having entered into their own lives, and we take into 
our lives only that which we implicitly believe. Now 
if we seek to analyze that which is the common faith 
of Christians in regard to the Holy Spirit we shall 
find something like this : there is a general belief in 
his true and proper Deity ; there is a common recog- 
nition of the necessity of his agency for the renewal 
of the heart; and there is, also, though not per- 
haps so deep and earnest as it ought to be, a realiza- 
tion of the truth that he alone can give power to the 
preaching of the gospel. When we are longing for 
conversions, and seeking for such a revival of religion 
in the city and the land as shall turn many from 
darkness unto light, and from the power of Satan unto 
God, we pray for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit 



THE SEAL AND EARNEST OF THE SPIRIT. 231 

But there for the most part we stop. We do not deny 
that it is he alone who can foster and maintain within 
us the graces of Christian character. We are far 
from affirming, in so many words, that after we have 
once been regenerated by the grace of the Holy Ghost 
we can get on very well without him ; or that for com- 
fort, for growth, for security, and for perseverance we 
are independent of him ; but the simple fact is that 
most of us do not consciously rely on him for these 
things, do not pray to him for them, and do not give 
to him the glory when, in spite of our ignoring of him, 
we are permitted to experience them. This explains 
the disproportion in our hymn-books to which I have 
referred, and points to a serious defect in our prac- 
tical theology. Take the first ten church members 
whom you may chance to meet; ask them why we 
need the Holy Ghost ; press them to tell you whether 
they pray for him, and if they do, get them to explain 
why they have prayed for him ; then I venture to say, 
that most of them will affirm that they wish to see his 
power manifested as it was on Pentecost, in the awak- 
ening and regeneration of men through the preaching 
of the truth, and that scarcely one among them will 
allege that he ever thought of asking for him in order 
that he might himself become purer, more devoted, 
more Christ-like in his own character and life. Now 
I have called this a serious defect in our practical 
theology, and I would have it remedied not by giving 
less attention to other matters, but by giving more to 
this. We cannot make too much of the love of the 
Father, and I would not desire that we should in any 
degree diminish our appreciation of that. We can- 
not go wrong in glorying in the Cross of Christ, and 
anything short of whole-hearted consecration to our 
divine Redeemer is to be deprecated. Neither would 



232 



THE SEAL AND EARNEST OF THE SPIRIT. 



I have one prayer fewer offered for the outpouring ol 
the Spirit in connection with energizing of men for 
the preaching of the gospel. But while we do these 
things we must not leave the other undone. Let us 
not honor the Father and the Son less ; but let us honor 
the Holy Spirit more, yea, let us honor him equally 
with the Father and the Son. Let us not make less 
of the necessity of his agency for giving success to the 
preaching of the gospel ; but let us make more than 
we have been doing heretofore of the need of his 
operations in us for our daily spiritual growth ; and 
while we pray as earnestly as ever that he would 
" baptize the nations" and quicken them into spiritual 
life let us ask more fervently than ever that he may 
work in us for the development and ripening of our 
characters " till we all come in the unity of the faith 
and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a per- 
fect man, unto the measure of the stature of the full* 
ness of Christ." 

Whatever excuse may be offered for this too com- 
mon ignoring by us of the work of the Holy Ghost in 
the sustenance of the individual Christian life, it can- 
not be said that its necessity is not kept steadily be- 
fore us in the New Testament. Many of the very 
names by which he is called set this aspect of his 
agency very clearly before our eyes. Thus when the 
Lord Jesus promised to send him as another Com- 
forter, or Paraclete, he taught us to expect him as one 
who should be our constant helper, as real, as gra- 
cious and as powerful as himself. Yfhen he is called 
the Spirit of Holiness, the suggestion is that through 
his working in us we are to grow in holiness. When 
he is styled the Spirit of Supplication, we are re- 
minded that all true prayer is the result of his opera- 
tion in us. When he is spoken of as the Spirit of 



THE SEAL AND EARNEST OF THE SPIRIT. 233 

Grace, we are led to understand that it is through him 
Christ's grace is communicated to us and comes to be 
sufficient for us. And the same truths are suggested 
to us by the two figures under which his work is 
brought before our notice in the words which I have 
taken this morning as my text. Let me endeavor 
then to unfold to you all that is here implied in order 
that I may stir you up to ask for the Holy Ghost for 
yourselves to help you through the daily conflict of 
your lives, as well as for others that they may be con- 
verted unto God by the manifestation of his power. 

I. First let us see if we can discover with what fit- 
ness it can be said that God hath sealed us by his 
Spirit. In the verse which I have read, indeed, it is 
not expressly affirmed that the Holy Spirit is the seal 
which God has affixed to his people in Christ, but a 
comparison of Paul's words here with those which 
he used in his Epistle to the Ephesians when he 
wrote " in whom, also, after that ye believed, ye were 
sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise," and again, 
" Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are 
sealed unto the day of redemption," will make it 
abundantly evident that the same thing was in his 
mind when he employed the language of the text. In 
what respects, then, may the Holy Spirit be compared 
to a seal ? The answer is suggested by the uses to 
which among men a seal has been put. These are 
three : 

1. It has been employed first to authenticate a 
document or confirm it as genuine. Thus Jezebel is 
said to have written letters in Ahab's name and sealed 
them with his seal; and in the book of Esther it is 
recorded of the decree of the king, " in the name of 
Ahasuerus was it written and sealed with the king's 



234 THE SEAL AND EARNEST OF THE SPIRIT. 

ring." * The same usage holds among ourselves, foi 
important deeds are almost always marked with an 
official seal, and the effect is that all who read them 
acknowledge them as authentic. So by the Spirit of 
God the believer has the assurance given to him that 
he is a genuine disciple of Christ. He has the attest- 
ation in him that he is born of God, or, as Paul has 
elsewhere phrased it, " the Spirit beareth witness with 
his spirit that he is a child of God." But how is this 
assurance given to the Christian ? Not, I answer, by 
the administration of any ordinance. The sacraments 
of baptism and the Lord's Supper have often been 
called by theologians " sealing ordinances," and there 
is a sense in which the words thus used may be ap- 
propriate, but they do not mean that the reception of 
these ordinances is indubitable evidence that he who 
receives them is a child of God. Many who have 
been baptized have denied the Lord that bought 
them, and many too who have taken into their hands 
the symbols of Christ's body and blood have done so 
only as an empty form and without any spiritual 
benefit. These therefore are not the means by which 
believers are sealed by the Holy Ghost. But neither 
does he impart this authenticating assurance by any 
direct revelation or through any special communica- 
tion, as by dream or vision. The Spirit works in a 
man by working through him. His agency is exerted 
through the operation of the believer's own faculties. 
The supernatural acts through the natural, by quick- 
ening it into exercise and stimulating it to excellence. 
Thus it comes that its working is not a matter of con- 
sciousness as distinct from the usual operation of the 
powers of the soul itself. The believer cannot say at 



* I Kings xsi. 8 ; Esther iii. 12. 



THE SEAL AND EARNEST OF THE SPIRIT. 235 

any moment in his experience that he feels and knows 
that there is a power different from his own at work 
within him. He is conscious only of results. He 
knows that the Holy Ghost has been exerting his 
agency within him only when he perceives that the 
fruit of the Spirit has begun to make its appearance in 
him. Here, in the word, is the description of that 
which the Holy Ghost produces in a man — " the fruit 
of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentle- 
ness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance" — and 
when in his consciousness these qualities make their 
presence known, he has then the witness of the Spirit 
in him that he is a genuine believer. In short, when 
the fruit of the Spirit in the experience of the man cor- 
responds to the description of it which is given in the 
word, just as the impression on the wax does to the 
die that produced it, then he is warranted to infer that 
he is sealed with the Holy Spirit of God, and authen- 
ticated to himself as a genuine Christian. This 
description of the matter is thus equally removed, on 
the one hand, from that fanaticism which would lead 
you to expect a direct communication, either by secret 
revelation or by audible voice, from God, and on the 
other from that rationalistic naturalism which would 
deny all reality whatever to the operations of the 
Spirit in the heart ; and I am happy to be able to con- 
firm my statement by the words of such an eminent 
man of God as Chalmers, who has said : " I could not, 
without making my own doctrine outstrip my own ex- 
perience, vouch for any other intimation of the Spirit 
of God than that which he gives in making the word of 
God clear unto you, and the state of your own heart 
clear unto you. From the one you draw what are its 
promises, from the other what are your own personal 
characteristics ; and the application of the first to the 



236 THE SEAL AND EAENEST OF THE SPIRIT. 

second may conduct yon to a most legitimate argu- 
ment that you personally are one of the saved — and 
that not a tardy or elaborate argument, either, but 
with an evidence quick and powerful as the light of 
intuition." * Thus interpreted, the work of the Holy 
Spirit in sealing believers is intimately associated 
with their assurance of salvation, and, therefore, we 
may see how much we lose by so commonly ignoring 
his agency. 

2d. But a seal was used, in the second place, as a 
mark by which to distinguish property. When thus 
employed it was different from all other badges, and 
was in its nature unique and peculiar. We have some- 
thing like it in modem times in the trade-mark which 
a manufacturer copyrights and makes his own, so that 
wherever it is imprinted one can tell at a glance the 
ownership of that on which it appears. Just as to- 
day throughout the British Empire everything that 
is marked with the broad arrow is at once recognized 
as the property of the government ; so in ancient times, 
the servants, cattle and goods of a rich man were dis- 
tinguished by his seal. In like manner believers are 
recognized as the property of God by the seal of the 
Spirit ; and as sometimes yet with us a seal has an 
obverse and reverse side, so in the case of believers 
the seal of the Spirit is at once inner and outer. This 
is made clear by Paul in these words of his to Timo- 
thy : " Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth 
sure, having this seal " — that is, a seal with these in- 
scriptions on it : " The Lord knoweth them that are 
his. And, Let every one that nameth the name of 
Christ depart from iniquity." On the hidden side, 
visible only to Jehovah, is this inscription : " The 



* Chalmers on Romans viii. 16. In Lectures on Romans. 



THE SEAL AND EARNEST OF THE SPIRIT. 



237 



Lord knoweth them that are his." He knoweth them 
not only as his own regenerated ones, but also by 
their aspirations after himself, by their hidden com- 
munion with himself, and by their joy in himself. 
These things are secrets between him and them. But 
on the other side, where all men may read it, there is 
this inscription — " Let him that nameth the name of 
Christ depart from iniquity." Thus they are distin- 
guished among men as God's property by their depart- 
ure from iniquity. They are a peculiar people not only 
in the sense of being God's purchased possessions, 
but also in that of being different from all others, and 
that visible difference is in their keeping themselves 
" unspotted from the world." Hence, just as the authen- 
tication of the believer to himself is given in his ex- 
perience, so the difference between him and others 
which points him out as God's property is marked in 
his conduct ; and by his non-conformity to the world, 
which is the result of the renewing of his mind, he is 
sealed, in the eyes of all men, as belonging to the 
Lord. I do not say that he is entirely free from sin, 
but I do affirm that his relation to sin is different from 
that of other men. They serve sin, but he has revolted 
from sin, and is departing from it. He falls yet some- 
times, but when he does he is overtaken in a fault. 
He sins yet, sometimes, but when he does he rises 
out of it and returns to God. "When his foot slides it 
is not like the stumbling of one who is descending 
deeper and deeper into iniquity ; but it is the foot-slip 
of an eager climber who is panting in his ascent of the 
hill and if he should fall, he is never content to lie 
still, but he arises forthwith and renews his toil. His 
face is in the right direction. His cry is ever Up- 
ward, Godward, Heavenward, and he longs to reach 
the summit, where he shall be like God — for he shall 



238 THE SEAL AND EAENEST OF THE SPIRIT. 

sco liim as lie is. Now this outward character is the 
badge of Christian disciple ship, the mark that a man 
belongs to God, and it is produced in him by the 
agency of the Holy Ghost. Hence we may see how 
near the honoring of the Spirit lies to one of the great 
necessities of the times. The cry is, and I fear there 
is good reason for the exclamation, that the church 
and the world are becoming indistinguishable ; that 
Christians are losing their characteristic features ; 
and that there is little or no difference between them 
and other men. What is this but to say that the seal 
of the Spirit is becoming undecipherable ; that its 
sharp relief is worn down ; that its inscription is well- 
nigh illegible ? Arid hoy/ is it to be renewed, if not 
by a new honoring of God the Holy Ghost among us as 
the author and agent of personal sanctification ? Ah ! 
have we not in this worldly conformity among profess- 
ing Christians the result and Nemesis of our forgetful- 
ness in our prayers and praises of the Holy Spirit ? 

When the coinage of a country has worn thin and 
light, so that no one can see the image or read the 
superscription which once it bore, it is called in, re- 
minted, and sent forth anew, with a clearly distinct 
and finely relieved impression from the original die. 
And so, when our Christian characters are rubbed 
down by the abrasion of the world to such an extent 
that the image of the Lord in us has been well nigh 
effaced, there is all the more need for us to submit 
ourselves to the re minting of the Holy Spirit, that we 
may come forth anew and bear unmistakable witness 
to Christ's royalty over us and property in us. 

3. But in the third place a seal was used as a means 
of security. Thus it is recorded of the stone laid at 
the mouth of the den into which Daniel was thrust r 
" The King sealed it with his own signet and with the 



THE SEAL AND EAENEST OF THE SPIRIT. 239 

signet of Lis lords, that the purpose might not be 
changed concerning Daniel," and when Jesus was laid 
in the grave the Jews made the sepulcher sure, " seal- 
ing the stone, and setting a watch." In like manner 
believers are kept secure in the world by the seal of 
the Spirit. Now let us clearly understand how this 
is brought about. The reference here is not to God's 
almighty protection. Neither is it to the ordering of 
his all-wise providence. Both of these, indeed, are 
engaged by covenant for the defence of the Christian, 
but here the allusion is to something resulting from the 
Spirit's agency in the believer's heart, by which he is 
preserved until the d ay of redemption. And so we come 
back again to those qualities in the Christian which 
are wrought out in him by the Holy Ghost, through 
faith, and we see in them the means of his security. 

The characteristics and habits which are acquired 
by the believer, through the grace of the Holy Ghost, 
are the means of preserving him from falling before 
the assaults of his spiritual enemies. Recall again 
that enumeration of Paul : " The fruit of the Spirit is 
love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, 
faith, meekness, temperance : against such there is no 
law." Or that other : " The fruit of the Spirit is in all 
goodness and righteousness and truth." Then with 
these catalogues in your memory compare them with 
the well-known passage which describes the Christian's 
armor thus : " Stand, therefore, having your loins girt 
about with truth, and having on the breast-plate of 
righteousness ; and your feet shod with the preparation 
of the gospel of peace, above all taking the shield of 
faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the 
fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of 
salvation, and the sword of the Spirit which is the 
word of God, praying always with all prayer and sup- 



240 THE SEAL AND EARNEST OF THE SPIRIT. 

plication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with 
all perseverance." And what result do we get from 
the comparison? "We get this — that the Christian's 
graces are his armor also ; that the very same qualities 
which are styled the fruit of the Spirit are, in another 
view of them, the whole armor of God and the means 
of defence from his soul's adversaries. The virtues to 
the cultivation of which he is stimulated, and in the 
development of which he is sustained by the Spirit, 
are the means by which that Divine Agent secures him 
from all the assaults of his enemies ; and so we see how 
it comes that the doctrine of the perseverance of the 
saints, when rightly understood, never can lead to 
indolence ; for the Spirit preserves his people from 
falling away by the fostering within them of those 
qualities and habits which are absolutely incompat- 
ible with their declension. He seals them by righte- 
ousness, not as an objective gift bestowed upon them, 
but as a character maintained by them, and so that 
righteousness is a breastplate. He marks them with 
truth, not as a passive possession, but as an active 
principle, and so that truth is for them a girdle. And 
the same is true of all the other items in the catalogue 
of the Spirit's fruit. Now with these facts before us 
we can comprehend how it comes that on the one hand 
believers are said to be kept by the power of God 
through faith, and on the other it is alleged that he 
that is begotten of God keepeth himself. Our security 
is perfect, and yet it is not without our own exertions — 
for it is effected by the constant manifestation by us 
of the qualities which are formed and fostered in us 
by the operation of the Holy Ghost. If, therefore, 
there be anything like spiritual indolence among us, 
or if there be frequent cases of falling away among 
those who were once apparently running well, we may 



THE SEAL AND EARNEST OF THE SPIRIT. 241 

be sure that the root of all such evils is in the ignoring 
of the agency of the Spirit, whereby we are sealed 
unto the day of redemption. 

II. But I must hasten now to consider with all 
brevity what is implied in the second figure here 
employed to illustrate the value of the work of the 
Spirit in our hearts. " And hath given us the earnest 
of the Spirit." The term is borrowed from a custom 
which used to be observed in connection with the 
transfer of property. It was common in a case of 
purchase that the buyer received a small installment 
at once as a sample of that which he had bought and as 
a pledge that in due season full delivery should be 
made. This installment or first-fruit was called an 
earnest, and so when the Holy Spirit in our hearts is 
styled an earnest, we have these two things implied, 
namely — first, that the fruit of the Spirit which we 
here enjoy is the same in kind with the blessedness 
of heaven, and second, that it is a pledge that heaven 
in its perfection shall ultimately be ours. 

The Spirit in our hearts is a foretaste of the quality 
of heaven. The life of heaven will differ not in kind, 
but only in degree, from that of the believer here. 
" He that belie veth on the Son hath everlasting life." 
Observe, it is not will have, but hath. All that which 
has come to him through his faith in the Son shall never 
die. His heaven is begun here, in reconciliation to 
God, in fellowship with God, in assimilation to God. 
The quickening which he has here experienced through 
the agency of the Holy Ghost is the germ of the life of 
glory. The light which he has here received through 
the illumination of the Spirit is the beginning of the 
knowledge of heaven. The happiness which he has 
here enjoyed, through the work of the Holy Ghost in 
11 



212 THE SEAL AND EARNEST OF THE SPIRIT. 

him, is the commencement of the blessedness of 
heaven. The earnest is the same in kind with the 
purchase, and the fruit to which we have this morn- 
ing so often referred is of the same sort as the inherit- 
ance on high. 

I say not, indeed, that our present experience 
gives us any adequate idea of the full glory of 
heaven. Light is the same in the first streak of 
early dawn as it is in the splendor of high noon — the 
same in kind, but how different in degree. Life is 
the same in its radical nature in the infant on its 
mother's lap and in the philosopher at his post of ob- 
servation as he scans the heavens — the same in 
kind, but how different in degree ! So heaven 
transcends in degree all that we have experienced 
here on earth. Yet the view which I have now pre- 
sented, and which I am persuaded is entirely Script- 
ural, may keep us from falling into foolish and dan- 
gerous error regarding the future life. Heaven is not 
a place of material splendor, any more than hell is a 
lake of material fire. Retribution is the intensifica- 
tion of that which is known as remorse here ; and 
glorification is the sublimation, the elevation, and the 
purification of that which the believer has already 
experienced of joy, and peace, and holiness on earth. 
The celestial city, with its walls of jasper, and its 
gates of pearl, and its streets of gold, is a beautiful 
figure. It is a material symbol for a spiritual reality 
which will be infinitely greater than anything ma- 
terial can ever be, and that spiritual reality is com- 
pleted humanity, glorified character, and perfected 
happiness. Heaven is a state more than a place, a 
character more than a possession, a happiness more 
than a position ; and we enter into that state, we ac- 
quire that character, we taste that happiness here and 



THE SEAL AND EARNEST OF THE SPIRIT. 243 



now through faith in Jesus Christ and by the indwell- 
ing of his Spirit in our hearts. How important, 
therefore, in this regard, that we should keep clearly 
before our minds the place and the power of the 
Holy Ghost in the sanctification of our souls ! 

But our present enjoyment of the fruit of the Spirit 
is a pledge that the full inheritance of heaven shall 
yet be ours. " He who hath begun a good work in us 
will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ." What 
God commences he carries through ; and having done 
so much in us he will bring it to completeness. 
This, you observe, is not quite the same as the se- 
curity which was suggested to us by the seal. That 
was the pledge that we should be kept for heaven ; 
this is an assurance that heaven shall be possessed 
by us ; and both together are brought before us in 
the words of Peter, when he speaks of " an inherit- 
ance, incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not 
away, reserved in heaven for them who are kept by 
the power of God through faith." Thus the saints 
are kept for the inheritance, and the inheritance is 
reserved for the saints, so that there is a double 
guarantee ; and by these two immutable things we 
may have strong consolation as we pursue our life 
journey here on earth. Nay, more ; both of these 
guarantees are given by the Holy Ghost in his work 
within us, and so we see how closely connected with 
our safety and our joy, our present comfort and our 
future glory, the agency of the Spirit is. Surely, if 
we were more thoroughly alive to these considera- 
tions we would have a higher appreciation of the 
Third in the Trinity, and be more frequently found 
hymning his praise and supplicating his blessing. 

But I must conclude. I have, throughout, been 
speaking this morning to those who have had some 



24A THE SEAL AND EARNEST OF THE SPIRIT. 

experience of the power of diyine grace in their 
hearts, for, as Paul has clearly affirmed, it is only 
after men have believed that they are sealed by the 
Holy Spirit of promise. Yet I cannot leave off with- 
out saying a word or two to those who have not yet 
" set to their seal that God is true," by believing in 
his Son. To them I come to-day as the spies came to 
Kadesh-barnea, two of them carrying between them 
the Eshcol cluster of grapes as a sample of the pro- 
ducts of the goodly land which they had been to see. 
I show you in this " fruit of the Spirit " a specimen 
of the inheritance into which Jesus introduces us. 
Beware how ye receive our report. Ee member what 
happened to the tribes when they refused, at the 
word of Caleb, to go up and possess the land, and 
" take heed lest ye fall after the same example of un- 
belief." "Who among you is willing to set out with us 
to-day for this celestial heritage ? It is true that 
there is a river to cross before we fully reach it, but 
in that it only resembles every earthly blessing, for 
there is a Jordan before every Canaan. It is true that 
the Anakim are to be subdued, but that is only what 
we must expect in every enterprise, since nothing 
worthy of possession ever becomes ours without con- 
flict. But think of your leader ; for if you believe in 
Jesus, then he who erewhile appeared to Joshua as 
" the Captain of the Lord's host " will guide you on ; 
before him the river will be dried up, and at his ad- 
vance every adversary will be overthrown. Who, 
then, is willing to put himself under his leadership ? 
" Come with us and we will do you good, for we are 
journeying to the place of which God hath said, I 
will give it you, and the Lord hath spoken good con- 
cerning Israel." 

January 8, 1882. 



DRIFTING. 



Hebrews ii. 1. Lest haply we drift away from them. (Revised 
Version.) 

The key-note of this great Epistle is the word " bet- 
ter." It was written to those who were in danger of 
apostasy from the gospel by reason of their high ap- 
preciation of the Jewish law, and its argument is 
designed to show that inasmuch as Jesus is bet- 
ter than the angels by whom the law was given ; 
more glorious than Moses, who was the mediator 
of the old covenant ; more excellent in his minis- 
try than Aaron, who v/as its priest ; officiated in a 
nobler tabernacle than that which was erected in the 
wilderness, and offered a better sacrifice than those 
which smoked on the altar of burnt offerings, there- 
fore he is the surety of a better covenant, which 
brought in a better hope, was established upon better 
promises, and provided some better thing than v/as 
known or enjoyed under the ancient dispensation. 
Such being the case, it would be folly to go back from 
the gospel to the law, and the despising of the priv- 
ileges which Christ conferred would entail a much 
sorer punishment than that which fell on those 
who perished at the mouth of two or three witnesses 
for the violation of the Mosaic precepts, and so the 
solemn close of the whole train of reasoning is this : 
" See that ye refuse not him that speaketh ; for if 
they escaped not who refused him when he spake on 
earth, much more shall not we escape if we turn away 



246 



DRIFTING. 



from liira when lie speaketh from heaven, whose voice 
then shook the earth ; but now he hath promised, say- 
ing : Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but 
also heaven. And this word, yet once more, signi- 
fieth the removing of those things that are shaken, 
as of things that are made, that those things which 
cannot be shaken may remain. Wherefore we, re- 
ceiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have 
grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with 
reverence and godly fear, for our God is a consuming 
fire." 

That is the main purport of this magnificent trea- 
tise, and the text is the inference which the writer 
draws from the first section of his argument. Begin- 
ning with the fact that God, who had spoken in many 
ways and in many portions in the prophets, had now 
spoken unto men in his Son, he strikes what I have 
called his key-note at the very first, by describing 
that Son as " being made so much better than the 
angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more 
excellent name than they ; " and after having proved 
that statement, he sends home at once the inference 
from it thus : " Therefore we ought to give the more 
earnest heed to the things which we have heard — that 
is, heard from the Son — lest we should drift away 
from them ; for if the word spoken by angels was 
steadfast, and every trangression and disobedience 
received a just recompense of reward, how shall we 
escape if we neglect so great salvation which at the 
first began to be spoken by the Lord ? " 

It will be seen by you that in thus quoting the words, 
I prefer the rendering given by the revisers : " lest we 
should drift away from them " ; and this I do because 
it is a more exact translation of the Greek term, and 
brings into prominence a truth which is almost en- 



DRIFTING. 



247 



tirely concealed by the common version. To let a 
thing slip is to allow it to pass out of our grasp, or to 
lose our hold of it ; and that could not occur in our 
experience without our attention being drawn to it in 
some way. But that is not the precise sort of danger 
against which the writer guards his readers here. 
He is anxious to warn them of something which 
might happen to them before they were aware. He is 
not so much afraid of their positively " rejecting " the 
great salvation as of their " neglecting " it, in con- 
sequence of their yielding to other influences, or of 
their being preoccupied with other matters ; and his 
words describe not a direct and deliberate antagonism 
to the truth, but rather a letting of themselves be 
carried away from it by forces the operation of 
which is so insidious and stealthy that they would 
not notice their existence unless they were to give 
" earnest heed." This message by his Son is God's 
final word to men ; if it be disregarded, there is 
nothing more to be hoped for from him, and there is 
great danger that, even without cherishing any violent 
hostility to it, you may by certain influences be drifted 
away from it, and not be conscious of the fact until 
it has begun, — therefore you must give the more earn- 
est heed that such a danger may be avoided. 

Drifted — that is the precise word. The boat is un- 
anchored; it is at the moment in a quiet bay, but 
by-and-by the tide ebbs, and bears it on its bosom on 
to the middle of the current, and there it is carried 
out and away, and, perhaps, if no one has observed 
its motions, lost. Or, if I may illustrate by a personal 
reminiscence, take such a case as this : On my first 
tour through Switzerland I visited the quaint old city 
of Thun, along with three of my most intimate friends. 
We stayed at a hotel built on the side of the lake, 



248 



DRIFTING. 



just at the place where the Aar runs rapidly out of it, 
and we went to amuse ourselves for a season by rowing 
about in a little boat. After awhile a difference of 
opinion sprang up among us as to the direction we 
should take. One said, " Let us go yonder " ; another 
answered, "No; let us rather make for that other 
point " ; a third had still another suggestion, and we 
ceased rowing until we should make up our minds ; 
but meanwhile the current was settling the question 
for us, and unless we had speedily bent to the oars 
with all our might, we should have been hurried 
along into a dangerous place, out of which we could 
only have been rescued, if rescued at all, by the as- 
sistance of others. 

The influences, therefore, against which we are 
warned by the words of my text are those of currents 
which are flowing just where we are, and which may 
operate so insidiously that we may not know of their 
effect until perhaps it is too late to resist their power. 
These currents in the case of the Hebrews we have 
already adverted to, and we can see traces of their 
force in the successes of the Judaizers, to which Paul 
alludes in his Epistle to the Galatians ; but I do not 
dwell now upon them. I am desirous rather to guard 
you against those which are running to-day ; and, that 
I may not deal in vague generalities, I will specify 
three. 

I. Take then, first, that which I may call the age- 
current, or what a recent English essayist, borrowing 
from the German, has called the " Time-spirit." Every 
epoch has its own special tendency. Just as there 
are times when some forms of disease are epidemic, 
so there are periods when an intelligent observer can 
discover certain very distinct trends of thought among 



DRIFTING. 



249 



men. In the days immediately preceding the French 
Revolution, infidelity of the type of Voltaire was in 
the ascendant, and its tide swept over many lands. In 
England, in the wake of the deists who wrote in the 
early part of the eighteenth century, such unbelief was 
prevalent that Butler, in 1736, used these words : " It 
is come, I know not how, to be taken for granted by 
many persons that Christianity is not so much as a 
subject of inquiry ; but that it is now, at length, dis- 
covered to be fictitious. And, accordingly, they treat 
it as if, in the present age, this were an agreed point 
among all people of discernment, and nothing remained 
but to set it up as a principal subject of mirth and 
ridicule " ; and he was himself so much affected by it 
that all he ventured to say was : " Thus much, at least, 
will here be found, not taken for granted, but proved, 
that any reasonable man who will thoroughly consider 
the matter may be as much assured as he is of his 
own being that it is not, however, so cisar a case that 
there is nothing in it." The age-current was surely 
very strong when even a Butler was prevented by it 
from affirming more than that ! But in our own times 
something of the same sort has made itself felt. It is 
curious, indeed, that as one looks back over the last 
three centuries, he sees a kind of family likeness be- 
tween them in this regard. The years between 1GG0 
and 1688 marked in England the darkest time of that 
seventeenth cycle. They were the years of persecu- 
tion, ribaldry, profanity, immorality and scepticism, 
consequent upon the restoration of the Stuarts to the 
throne ; the years when Jeffries disgraced the English 
bench, and when the martyrs' blood ran red upon the 
Scottish moors. Then, a hundred years later — the 
time between 1760 and the close of the eighteenth 
century — was that in which England and Scotland 
It* 



250 



DRIFTING. 



both were blighted by a cold moderatism in the pul* 
pits of the State churches, which preached a heathen 
morality instead of the gospel of the grace of God. 
And now again, at a similar period in the nineteenth, 
we find ourselves called upon to contend not for the 
inspiration of the Scriptures, or for the reality of mir- 
acles, or for the divine origin of the Gospel, but for 
the very existence of God himself. A physical science 
which has taken up with the doctrine of development, 
and has insisted that what is at best an ingenious 
hypothesis shall be accepted as a demonstrated fact, 
has prepared the way for an agnostic philosophy 
which refuses to believe that anything can be known 
save that which can be perceived by the bodily senses, 
aided by the scalpel and the microscope, and that, in 
its turn, has given birth to a rank atheism, which has 
adopted as its creed the terrible negation, No God, 
You meet with this current in our literature. There 
are first-class reviews every number of which has one 
or more articles devoted to some one or other of these 
subjects. Many of our scientific treatises — not all, I 
am thankful to say — are infected with the same evil 
spirit. Some of our daily papers give prominence 
and circulation to the views which it inspires, and the 
strength of it may be estimated by the fact that it has 
affected even the ministry of the gospel to some ex- 
tent, so that we now and then hear of one who has 
drifted away from everything that the Christian 
holds dear. 

I do not desire to magnify the evil. My own con- 
viction is that the pendulum has had its full swing 
in the materialistic direction, and that a reaction will 
speedily take place, if it have not already begun. But 
I do not believe that any one who has been taking note 
of passing events will gainsay my statement that a 



DKIFTING. 



251 



current of the sort which I have described has been 
flowing for some years and is flowing still. Thero 
is a distinct difference between the state of things 
in this regard to-day and that which existed five 
and twenty or thirty years ago. And the question 
I would desire to put to you, and would seek to put 
to myself, is, How have we been affected by it? 
It may be very true that we are not disposed to 
accept either the logic of scientific men or the philos- 
ophy of those who would debar all faith in the spirit- 
ual, the unseen, and the supernatural. If we were 
asked whether we joined them in their contemptuous 
treatment of the word of God, and their rejection of 
the Saviour, we should answer with an emphatic "No." 
But are we quite sure that we have not drifted to some 
extent with the current ? After so much has been said 
on every hand about the "uniformity of Nature's 
laws," and "prayer-tests," and "the eternal something 
not ourselves that makes for righteousness," after 
even a Huxley has spoken of God as "it" we might 
perhaps prudently ask, " Is God the same to us that 
he was of yore ? Do we solace ourselves as much as 
ever with the assurance that the very hairs of our 
head are numbered ? Is prayer to us the comfort and 
strength it used to be ? Do we prize the Sabbath and 
the sanctuary as in our earlier life ? Do we long for 
the communion table as we were wont to do ? Is the 
Bible still to us the same old book, and do we find the 
same joy in its perusal ? " We need not flatter our- 
selves that the age-current can have no effect upon 
us. If we do, that is the sure precursor of our being 
ultimately carried with it. "We must either resist it 
or yield to it. And if we have not been consciously 
and determinedly resisting it, we have been drifting 
with it, and the drift will show itself in one or other 



252 



DRIFTING, 



of Hie wars which I have mentioned. If it be true 
that the standard of piety and morality is lower among 
Christians than it was formerly ; if it be the ease that 
the Church is less of an aggressive force in our large 
centers of population than it was a generation ago; if 
the numbers of those enrolling themselves in its ranks 
are smaller than they have been in other days : if here, 
as in England, the census of those who statedly attend 
the house of God on the first day of the week, is not 
so great as it was a quarter of a century ago. may it 
not be owing to the fact that we have not been taking 
heed to guard against this age-drift which has been 
flowing beneath us? Brethren, let us get back to 
Christ, and anchor fast on him. He is the eternal 
Sen of God. His words are truth. His life is our 
divine ideal. His death is our true and only atone- 
ment for sin. His precept is our law. His interces- 
sion is our solace. His heaven is our hope. Let us 
hold the beginning of our confidence in him steadfast 
unto the end, and that will keep us right. There have 
been many assaults made upon him, but still, as of 
yore, it is true that " they are dead who sought the 
young child's life," and he endures. So it will be 
again ; these vagaries in philosophy will pass away, 
even as the fleecy clouds remove from the summit of 
Mont Blanc : but he abides like the grand old mount- 
ain in its majestic mantle of stainless and eternal 
purity. Hear him, therefore, and keep fast hold of 
liis sayings : so shall you partake of his stability. But 
if you allow yourselves to drift away even in the least 
degree from him, that may be the beginning of a his- 
tory which will end in outer darkness. 

II. The second current to which I would refer is 
that of the place in which we dwell. Every city has 



DRIFTING. 



253 



its own peculiar influence. In the Place de la Con- 
corde in Paris, each principal town in France is repre- 
sented by an emblematic figure ; and as I went through, 
that magnificent square, on the day of the great fete of 
the Republic, and saw the statue of Strasbourg draped 
in mourning, while everything around was dressed in 
holiday attire, I had a vivid perception of the humili- 
ation and grief which the possession of that city by 
the Germans has been to the whole French people. 
But that is a digression. Each city there had its own 
ideal representative in the statue of a woman. I can- 
not tell whether the artist intended to delineate the 
character of the city by the figure which he called by its 
name ; but we all know that there is in each city a spirit 
which, as it were, inspires it ; a current which bears all 
in it more or less rapidly upon its bosom. Take the cap- 
ital of New England for example, and you cannot be long 
in it without knowing that it is especially and distinct- 
ively intellectual. A man there is graduated according 
to his education. The scholar bears the palm, and if 
in addition to his learning he possess some artistic 
excellence or some literary ability, he is ranked so 
much the higher. That current has its own dangers ; 
but that is not the current that is running in New 
York. It is true indeed that intellect is not despised 
among us. We have a few names even in this literary 
Sardis that do honor to the land. Neither do we look 
with contempt upon scholarship or art. But here 
commerce is supreme. The "place-current" for us 
is business. I do not suppose that everybody in 
the city is fond of money, or desires to possess it, 
simply and only for its own sake. But everybody 
loves business. There is an excitement and fascina- 
tion in that for all, and they cannot tear themselves 
away from it. They are not all thinking of what they 



254 



DKIFTING. 



will make, but many of them love it as boys love a 
game ; and if they are in it at all, they must be in it al- 
together, else they will at length be dishonored and 
unsuccessful. 

Now this current, also, is not without its dangers 
to the spiritual life. Business, indeed, is not incom- 
patible with piety, and it will not of necessity stir 
a man up to antagonism against the gospel, but it 
may so pre-occupy his mind and pre-engage his heart 
that he ceases to think about religious matters at 
all ; that is, it may drift him away from the things 
spoken by the Lord. In his earlier days, the young 
man may have been devout in his closet, and a daily 
student of the sacred Scriptures. Perhaps, also, he was 
an earnest teacher in some mission school. You never 
missed him from the weekly prayer-meeting, and 
when anything special was to be done for the church, 
he was always on hand to help. But as his business 
responsibilities increased, he became less earnest in 
these respects ; and when he went into commerce for 
himself, he drifted yet farther away. He had to go so 
early in the morning that he forgot prayer. He came 
home so tired in the evening that he had no heart to 
read either the Bible or any other book, and he sought 
rest in some place of questionable amusement. The 
prayer-meeting was neglected. Even the Sabbath was 
less cared for than before, and he was not averse to 
sandwiching it in between the Saturday and the Mon- 
day as a traveling day on some long journey to a 
Western city ; and then, if we spoke to him on the 
subject, he would be ready with the retort — "Be 
not righteous overmuch," and go away with a laugh. 
Now what is all this but drifting on the place-cur- 
rent ? and where is it to end ? Ah, if there be any of 
you who feel that I have been holding up a mirror 



DRIFTING. 



255 



wherein you have seen yourselves, let me urge you to 
take heed. You are giving too much for your business 
success, and if you do not return to your old anchor- 
age, you may find yourselves at length among the 
openly ungodly, who have passed from the neglecting, 
to the despising and rejecting, of the great salvation. 
Get back again to Christ. There is no stability save 
in him. Listen to his exhortations. Lay fast hold 
upon his principles. Grasp firmly his loving and 
fraternal hand. If he be the eternal Son, you cannot 
drift from him without loss, aye, a twofold loss — the 
loss of him and the loss of yourselves. So, before you 
are in the rapids where all struggle would be unavail- 
ing, before you are carried over the fall to irremediable 
perdition, let me entreat you to go back to him who 
alone can make business safe for you, by teaching you 
to transact it as a part of your worship and service of 
himself. 

But though we may not have gone to such a length 
as that which I have described, it would not be safe to 
infer that the " place-current " has had no effect what- 
ever upon us. Even a steamship is affected by the tide. 
She will make better time coming up the bay with the 
flow than against the ebb. And it is easier in spirit- 
ual things, also, to go with the stream, than it is to 
row against it. Nay, more, the same effort which we 
put forth to breast it would, in other circumstances, 
produce more satisfactory results. I do not hesitate 
to say that it is a less difficult matter to be an earnest 
Christian in some cities than it is in others ; and in a 
large metropolitan center like this, the tide is all the 
time running very strongly against us. We ought, 
therefore, to allow for that, and be all the more earn- 
est in the maintenance of our spiritual life. Then, so 
far from being injured by the current, we shall be 



250 



DRIFTING. 



benefited and strengthened, and rise to a nobler type 
of Christian excellence than may be found elsewhere. 
But to do that we must take heed. "W e must guard 
against the slightest backsliding ; and to succeed in 
that we must constantly test ourselves by the things 
which we have heard from Jesus. The navigator is 
saved from danger from unknown currents by his 
daily observations. The tides of ocean do not affect 
the heavenly bodies ; and by testing himself by these 
he knows precisely where he is. So the principles of 
the gospel are not shifted by the tendencies of any 
place ; and when we measure ourselves by them, we 
may discover how it is with us. Let us not take it for 
granted that because we are making some effort in the 
right direction, therefore we must be going forward. 
For these efforts may not be enough to resist the 
force of the current, and we may be drifting backward 
after all. You remember the case of Sir Edward 
Parry's crew in the Arctic regions. They set out one 
day to draw a boat over the ice, expecting thereby to 
get farther northward and in the open water, but after 
they had journeyed thus for, if I remember rightly, 
a day and a half or two days, they took an observa- 
tion, which revealed to their surprise that they were 
farther south than they had been when they set out, 
because while they had been going toward the pole, 
the ice on which they were had been carried by the 
drift of an under-current in the opposite direction. I 
fear, my brethren, that in this great business mart, 
where we are so exclusively occupied in buying and 
selling, and getting gain, many Christians among us 
are like these northern voyagers : they make exertions, 
and they seem, too, to be making progress ; but alas ! 
the drift that carries the whole place has carried them 
with it, and in reality they are not so far advanced as 



DKIFTING. 



257 



they were, it may be, years ago. This is a matter 
which we seldom think about, but it will bear ponder- 
ing ; and I earnestly beseech you to examine well and 
see whether you are even holding your own against 
the stream of opposite tendency that is flowing con- 
stantly in our city. 

III. But I have time now to do little more than name 
a third current, to the influence of which we are ex- 
posed. I would call it the personal drift, the drift in 
each of us individually. In making astronomical ob- 
servations, one operator is never precisely the same 
as another. Some are quick, others are slow ; some 
are exceedingly precise, and others not so perfectly 
exact ; and these differences, of course, affect the re- 
sults at which they arrive. Therefore, to neutralize, 
as far as possible, any error which may be thereby oc- 
casioned, there is what is known as a " personal equa- 
tion " for each, and by that his conclusions are recti- 
fied before they are sent forth for general acceptance. 
Now, in a similar way, spiritually, each man has his 
individual tendencies, which easily carry him in one 
direction or another. This personal drift, as I have 
named it, is the same thing as the writer of the Epis- 
tle from which my text is taken calls in another place 
the " sin that doth most easily beset us," and by 
yielding to that many are carried at last into perdi- 
tion. How easy it is to acquire an evil habit ! No- 
body, of mature years at least, ever sets himself de- 
liberately to learn such a habit. On the contrary, 
every one who has ever known or felt anything like 
Christian motives working within him, would affirm 
that he neither desires nor designs to let himself be 
enslaved by any evil. But yet how many such be- 
come drunkards before they will confess it to them- 



258 



DRIFTING. 



selves ? How many such become gamblers before 
they will admit that they are in danger from the 
facination of the cruel siren ? How many such are 
ensnared and held by the cords of their own lusts, 
humiliated at their helplessness, and yet hardly 
able to explain to themselves how they came to such 
degradation ? How many such have become dishon- 
est, who, as they now look back upon the history of 
the past, are amazed and bewildered, and feel as if 
they had been in some terrible nightmare ? All these 
have yielded to the personal drift, and if, haply, there 
should be any such within these walls now, let me 
beseech them to repent and return unto the Lord. 
There is no hope, and no help, either for time or for 
eternity, for you save in him. Rise, then, in the might 
of the strength which he will give you, and break the 
bonds of the habit by which you have been enthralled. 
Eise and he will give you pardon and peace ; yes, and 
purity, too, at length ; and oh, do not allow yourself 
to be allured again to the lap of your seducer, for if 
you do she will deliver you up to the tormentors, who 
will set you, Samson-like, to giind for their profit, or 
to make mirth for their sport. 

But prevention is better than cure, and therefore 
would I urge every one of you to examine well his 
own heart, that he may discover what his besetment 
is, and to take special care just there. "What a wide 
difference there is between Lot as he was when he 
was the companion of Abraham, and when he was 
hurried by the angel out of the burning Sodom ! 
These two, who came together out of Uz of the 
Chaldees, are now far apart ; and how is it explained ? 
Simply by Lot's personal drift. Abraham was where 
he had always been, or rather he had gone farther in 
the direction of excellence which he had been pur- 



DRIFTING. 



259 



suing, and in which for a time he had Lot, as it were, 
in tow. But when that choice of the well-watered 
plain was made by the latter, he cut the tow-line and 
drifted — drifted — into the plain — into Sodom — into fel- 
lowship with the Sodomites ; and lo ! this is the 
end — nay, not yet the end, for there is a darker, un- 
speakable history behind which illustrates more terri- 
bly the danger I would describe. O friends, let us 
not be self-confident here, or imagine that there is no 
fear of us. That imagination is itself the beginning 
of this personal drift. Distrust yourselves, and trust 
only, but always, in the Lord. Watch the little 
things, and let no lust, or appetite, or passion obtain 
dominion over you. Anchor on to Christ, and that is 
the sure preventive of all such drifting as I have been 
seeking to expose. Be not content with coming to 
him, but follow him ; and Oh ! beware of following him 
only " afar off," for it was in that way that Peter came 
so near apostasy. Follow him fully, and he will 
bring you at last, in spite of all adverse currents and 
contrary winds, to the haven of everlasting blessed- 
ness and rest. 
March 19, 1883 



THE INDUCTIVE STUDY OF THE 
SCRIPTURES.* 



Matt. iv. 7. " It is written again." 

When Satan tempted Christ to cast himself from 
the pinnacle of the temple, and sought to enforce his 
request by a quotation from Scripture, the Lord did 
not meet him with a denial of the inspiration or au- 
thority of the promise which he had repeated ; but he 
brought in the corrective of another passage from the 
word of God in the light of which the former was to 
be interpreted and applied. To the " it is written " 
of his assailant he answered, "It is written again." 
Ke did not repudiate the assurance which Satan had 
so glibly cited, but he intimated that he looked for its 
verification only in connection with his obedience of 
the command " Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy 
God." The injunction, Thou shalt not put to any un- 
necessary test, by thy false confidence, or bravado, 
the Lord thy God, is for all times and circumstances ; 
and only those who are obeying that precept have a 
right to look for the fulfillment of this promise, " He 
shall give his angels charge concerning thee, and in 
their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time 
thou dash thy foot against a stone." What the Sav- 
iour did here, therefore, was to fill out and complete 
the interpretation of the passage which Satan had re- 



* This discourse was given to the theological students at Yale, 
Princeton and Rochester Theological Seminaries. 



THE INDUCTIVE STUDY OF THE SCRIPTURES. 261 



peated, and lie did that by showing from another pas- 
sage the conditions within which alone the former 
could be rationally and intelligently accepted. 

Now the procedure of the Lord in this instance plainly 
implies that one portion or saying of scripture is to be 
read in connection with all other portions of it, and is 
to be understood and interpreted only in that sense 
which is in harmony with every other utterance of the 
sacred oracles. " All Scripture is given by inspiration 
of God," and we accept it all as the only infallible 
rule of faith and practice in religious things. But 
then, in so accepting it, we receive its individual state- 
ments as they are defined and explained by all the 
rest. No part of it is to be taken isolated and alone, 
but it is to be viewed as a whole, and the doctrines of 
our creed as well as the duties of our life are to be 
discovered by us through an exhaustive examination, 
not of separate passages, but of the whole teaching 
and tenor of the entire collection of treatises which 
we call the Bible. It is not enough that we be able 
to quote one text in proof of anything which we mean 
to advance as an article of faith, or enforce as a duty in 
daily life ; but we must examine how that one passage 
is related to the place in which it occurs, and to all 
other portions of the Scriptures which treat of the 
same subject. That is to say, we must study the Bible 
inductively, and explore its pages with a purpose and 
a method similar to those with which the man of 
science investigates the facts of nature. He gathers 
his instances, noting everything that is peculiar in the 
case of each ; then, having obtained some general prin- 
ciple which is applicable to them all, he arranges and 
classifies them ; and after that he crystallizes the 
result into some convenient formula which he calls the 
law of the phenomena. In this way, out of the facts 



262 THE INDUCTIVE STUDY OF THE SCRIPTURES. 

of vegetable life lie has evolved the science of botany ; 
out of the phenomena of the heavens he has distilled 
the science of astronomy ; and ont of the strata of the 
earth he is seeking to complete the science of geology. 

Now, what Nature is thus to the physical philosopher, 
Scripture is to the theologian. It furnishes him with 
a field of observation. Its statements are to him what 
the phenomena of nature are to the man of science. 
They are the things which he has to note, classify and 
formulate. God has not given us a religious system 
all arranged and mapped out into its several depart- 
ments in the Book of Revelation, any more than he 
has given us a scientific division of phenomena in the 
book of nature ; but there is a divine method alike 
in both, and it is the duty and the privilege of men to 
find that out in both by a persevering and exhaustive 
examination. Thus, whatever it may come to be in 
man's use of it, a system is, at the beginning, the result 
of investigation and not a guide to inquiry. As- 
tronomy, for example, is, as a science, the outcome of 
years of observation, calculation and demonstration 
on the part of many men of genius from the days of 
Copernicus down to our own. Yet when we teach our 
children the great principles which have been deduced 
by these philosophers and tell them, in apparent con- 
tradiction to the testimony of their own senses, that 
the earth moves round the sun and not the sun round 
the earth, nobody complains of our interfering with 
the young people's liberty of investigation, or exclaims 
that we are binding a yoke of system about their necks. 
But in precisely the same way systematic theology is, 
in its origin, a result. It is the formal statement of the 
conclusions arrived at from the diligent investigation 
of the Scriptures as a whole, by many men of patient, 
painstaking, plodding perseverance from the days of 



THE INDUCTIVE STUDY OF THE SCRIPTURES. 263 

Augustine to those of Hodge ; and there needs be no 
more outcry against teaching our children the prin- 
ciples at which such men have arrived than there is 
against initiating them into geology under Lyell or 
into astronomy under Newcomb. I have said this as 
a vindication of the much-decried use of the catechism 
in the religious instruction of the young, and to show 
you that in the educational employment which is thus 
made of system, theology does not differ from any 
other of the sciences. 

But while all this is true, we ought, as far as 
possible, in theology to make, or at least to verify, 
our system for ourselves, and to do that we must 
study the Bible inductively ; that is to say, we must 
study it first as a whole ; then we must take one sub- 
ject, and having gathered together into one view all 
the passages that Scripture contains anywhere con- 
cerning it, we must seek some principle of classifi- 
cation among them ; reduce them all to some general 
formula which shall embrace everything which each 
contributes, and find in that the doctrine which the 
word of God teaches on the matter. And when any 
one advances some new dogma, then, even as the man 
of science seeks to repeat the experiment which is 
alleged to have demonstrated the new principle, we 
must repeat his investigation, test his reasonings, 
examine into the fullness or otherwise of his induction, 
and decide accordingly. It is not enough that he is 
able to say " it is written " thus and so ; but he must 
be able to show that his interpretation and application 
of the words which he cites are in harmony with every 
other "It is written again" which can be brought be- 
fore him from the same sacred source. 

Now in prosecuting such a systematic and inductive 



264 THE INDUCTIVE STUDY OF THE SCRIPTURES. 

examination of the Scriptures, there are three things 
in reference to which we must be always on our guard. 
In the first place, we must see to it that all the pas- 
sages, brought together for some such purpose as that 
which I have described, have a real bearing on the 
subject in hand, W e must not mistake resemblance 
in sound for similarity in sense and allusion. One 
cannot examine the references in an ordinary study 
Bible, without noting how many of the parallels cited 
have little or nothing to do with the meaning and ap- 
plication of the passage in connection with which they 
are quoted. When any question arises among geolo- 
gists, the thing is settled by an appeal to the situation 
in which the specimen was found. Now in the same 
way all passages which we bring forth as bearing on a 
subject must be examined " in situ" and only those 
which are really pertinent ought to be permitted 
to be heard. As an illustration of my meaning here, 
let me cite a case which happened in my own ex- 
perience. The question whether it is right for a 
sinner to pray — a very foolish question, let me say — 
being under discussion, one of the disputants quoted 
from John ix., 31, the words : " We know that God 
heareth not sinners, but if any man be a worshiper 
of God, and doeth his will, him he heareth," as if these 
settled the matter. But a little investigation will show 
that this passage has nothing whatever to do with 
prayer. It is the assertion of the man who had been 
cured of his blindness, and is his own way of alleging 
that one who could work such a miracle as had been 
performed upon him, could not be an impostor, and 
must be more than a mere man. Apart altogether, 
therefore, from the fact that this poor, unlettered man 
was not speaking by any divine inspiration, and so 
cannot be accepted as an infallible authority in the 



THE INDUCTIVE STUDY OF THE SCRIPTURES. 265 

case, his words have nothing to do with the warrant 
or liberty of a sinner to pray, and have no psrtinence 
to any discussion upon that subject. Thus an exam- 
ination of the circumstances in connection with which 
a passage occurs is essential to the discovery of its 
real teaching ; and no saying must be wrested from 
its connection for the purpose of bolstering up a pre- 
conceived theory or opinion. 

But, in the second place, we must see to it that we 
give to each passage its own legitimate weight — no 
more, no less. Everything that is found recorded in 
the Bible is not, therefore, to be regarded as of divine 
and infallible authority. This saying may be startling 
to some, but a little explanation will make it clear. 
Thus, the historian, Luke, incorporates in his narra- 
tive of the Acts of the Apostles the letter of Claudius 
Lysias, the commandant of the castle of Jerusalem, to 
Felix, the governor. Now the inspiration of Luke 
vouches for the accurate reproduction of that letter, 
but its appearance in his narrative is not an indorse- 
ment of the falsehood which it contains to the effect 
that Lysias rescued Paul because he understood that 
he was a Boman citizen ; for his own record tells us 
that it was only after the apprehension of Paul, and 
just when he was in the act of having him bound in 
order to be scourged, that he found out that the apos- 
tle was a Boman. So, again, there are many records 
of conversations between different persons in the Bible ; 
and, finding these there, we are entitled to conclude 
that they are correct reports of what each speaker 
said ; but that does not give infallible authority to the 
sentiments uttered by each. Thus, take the book of 
Job, for example, and we have in it an account of a 
series of discussions between the patriarch and his 
friends. Now inspiration does not misrepresent the 
12 



266 THE INDUCTIVE STUDY OF THE SCRIPTURES. 



speakers, and we may conclude that each uttered that 
which is attributed to him. But that is a different 
thing from saying that Eliphaz, Bildad, Zophar, Elihu 
and Job were all inspired men, and that, if we find in 
the speeches of any one of them something favoring a 
particular opinion of our own, we may conclude that 
we have Scriptural sanction for its maintenance. The 
Bible contains the assertion, " Skin for skin, yea, all 
that a man hath will he give for his life," but that is 
Satan's word and not God's ; and he who should quote 
that in support of the assertion that a man ought to 
use all means for saving his life is not giving divine 
warrant for his doctrine, but rather citing the devil's 
opinion of human nature — an opinion, moreover, which 
Satan himself discovered was not universally correct, 
inasmuch as Job preferred his integrity to his life. 
Nicodemus was right when he said : " We know that 
thou art a teacher sent from God, for no man can do 
these miracles that thou doest except God be with 
him ; " but we may not cite that opinion as if it settled 
the question as to the evidential value of miracles by 
divine inspiration. It was simply the view of a candid, 
honest man, and if we want divine warrant for its cor- 
rectness we must go to Christ himself, or to one of the 
apostles. The saying of Benhadad : " Let not him that 
putteth on his armor boast like him that putteth it 
off," was a very wise one; but it was a maxim of 
wordly prudence, and it is not lifted up into divine 
morality by being reported in the Book of Kings. 
These and many similar passages which might be 
cited, may serve to show that when we find a passage 
bearing on a point in hand, we must take care to give 
it no more and no less that its legitimate weight. 

Thirdly, we must see to it that our induction of pas- 
sages is complete. In the logical argument which is 



THE INDUCTIVE STUDY OF THE SCRIPTURES. 267 

known as a dilemma, and which proceeds on the as- 
sumption that one or other of two things must be 
true, the conclusion is at once disproved if you can 
bring forward a third thing which may as easily be true 
as either of the other two. And, in the same way, the 
conclusion which one draws from an induction of par- 
ticulars is fatally vitiated if some other particular of a 
different sort ought to have been included. Thus, in 
the case of such a doctrine as the Atonement, if, like 
MacLeod Campbell, one takes his stand merely upon 
two passages of Scripture, and deals with them as if 
they were all that had a bearing on the subject, it is 
enough to upset his conclusion to declare that he has 
utterly ignored other portions of the word of God 
having a different aspect and yet clearly referring to 
the same great theme. One unexplained fact, as Sir 
Isaac Newton was free to confess, would upset the 
most plausible and insinuating theory, and in the 
same way one passage of Scripture fairly bearing on 
the theme in hand, and yet inconsistent with the doc- 
trine sought to be formulated, demands a reconsider- 
ation of the subject and a restatement of the conclusion. 

These principles seem to me to be so clear that no 
further argument is needed in their support. Now 
let us look at a few subjects in the consideration of 
which the importance of their application will be 
seen. 

Take, then, in the first place, the doctrine of the 
Trinity, and it will be found that while there are 
many passages in both the Old Testament and the 
New which give the strongest emphasis to the unity 
of God, " it is written again," and frequently, that the 
Father is God, and the Son is God, and the Holy 
Spirit is God ; while in such formulae as that of bap- 



268 THE INDUCTIVE STUDY OF THE SCRIPTURES. 

tism and that of the apostolic benediction, each is so 
named as to indicate that there is in each something 
that is unique and distinctive. Fatherhood is not 
Sonship ; and there is that attributed to the Holy 
Ghost which is peculiar to him. Now how shall we 
do in such a case ? If we so keep to the divine unity 
as to repudiate the deity of the Son and that of the 
Holy Ghost, we fall into the error of the Socinian 
and are guilty of an imperfect induction. If, again, 
we begin to describe the distinction between the three 
in human phraseology, we are in danger of falling 
into tri-theism, and so repudiating that unity which 
is everywhere in Scripture predicated of God. "We 
must therefore find some formula in which the deity 
of each shall be recognized, while yet the unity of the 
Godhead shall be maintained. If we attempt to ex- 
plain the "how," we shall immediately land ourselves 
in difficuly ; but if we mean to be faithful to Scripture 
teaching on the subject, we must find some place for 
an acknowledgment of both facts. Whether the word 
" person," which has been settled on as that by which 
to designate the distinction is the best, may fairly 
enough be questioned ; for if we take that term in its 
modern sense it is almost suggestive of tri-theism : 
and if we restrict it to its ancient significance, it may 
lead us to that Sabellianism which resolved the Trin- 
ity simply into modes of the divine manifestation ; so, 
perhaps, it would be better to content ourselves with 
saying that the Father is God, and the Son is God, and 
the Spirit is God ; and that while each of these terms 
denotes something distinctive and restricted to him 
who is called by it, yet the deity of each must not be 
held in any such sense as violates the incontrovertible 
truth, that " the Lord our God is one Jehovah." If 
you ask me to explain how this can be, I acknowledge 



THE INDUCTIVE STUDY OF THE SCRIPTURES. 269 

my helplessness ; but if I am to formulate the result 
of a full Scriptural induction on this subject, I must 
do it in some such manner as that which I have just 
expressed. I dare not reject either side of the ap- 
parent inconsistency without failing to take note of 
some of the Bible statements on the subject, and if I 
do that, I am guilty of setting myself above revela- 
tion, and making my reason and not Scripture the in- 
fallible standard of my faith. If I do that, I am as 
unscientific in my treatment of the Bible, as I should 
be in my treatment of nature if I took note only of 
such facts as fitted my theory and ignored all others. 

Take, again, the doctrine of the Person of Christ, 
and we have in ifc an illustration precisely similar to 
that of the Trinity. The Lord Jesus is really a man. 
That is everywhere apparent in the gospel history. 
But then his was a unique manhood, giving constant 
evidence that there was in him something higher and 
nobler than common humanity. Moreover he is con- 
stantly spoken of by his followers as one possessed 
of Deity, or rather, to speak more correctly, as one in 
whom Deity was united to humanity. Thus John de- 
scribes him in this wise : " The Word was made flesh 
and dwelt among us ; " and in immediate connection 
with that assertion he affirms : " The Word was God." 
Again, Paul declares that being originally " in the form 
of God " he took upon him " the form of a servant," 
and if any one should shelter himself here under the 
word " form," as if that meant something different from 
real godhood, the sufficient answer is found in the fact 
that the form of a servant describes a very real ser- 
vice ; so that the apostle in these expressions virtually 
claims for him that he is God in human nature. Nor 
are these isolated passages ; multitudes of others 
might be cited to the same effect, while there are 



270 THE INDUCTIVE STUDY OF THE SCRIPTURES. 

some that speak of his manhood alone, and others 
which make reference only to his deity. What, then, 
does a fair induction from all these require ? It " is 
written " that he is a man. But "it is written again " 
that he is God. Shall I then reject either ? No ; for 
that would be unscientific, and would be a repudia- 
tion of the Bible as the guide of my faith. I must 
accept both, however mysterious, and, indeed, incom- 
prehensible the miracle may be, I must declare that 
in the one person of Christ deity and manhood are 
united. If I begin to refine into particulars I shall 
soon find myself lost in uttermost perplexity, for that 
is always the result of seeking to be wise above what 
is written, but if I mean to be wise " up to " what is 
written, and seek to formulate all that the New 
Testament teaches on the subject, I must declare in 
the words of the catechism, that "the eternal Son of 
God became man, and so was, and continueth to be 
God and man in two distinct natures and one person 
for ever." 

Yery instructive in this particular is the record of 
church history. Almost every conceivable opinion on 
this subject has been broached by some one; and 
every new view that is started upon it will be found 
to be virtually the resurrection of some old heresy, 
and may be shown to be founded on an imperfect in- 
duction of Scripture teaching regarding it; while 
that which has been settled upon as the orthodox 
faith upon it may be considered as the final result of 
a reverent attempt continued for many ages, to give 
expression to the sum of Scriptural teaching in answer 
to the question : " Who is this Son of Man? " There 
is only one way of holding a spirit-level which will 
keep the vacuum exactly at the center, and if you 
swerve from that even in the least degree, the vacuum 



THE INDUCTIVE STUDY OF THE SCRIPTUEE3. 271 

will ultimately move either to one extremity or the other. 
So in the orthodox statement of the doctrine of the per- 
son of Christ you have the only resting-place where 
you can permanently remain and do justice to all that 
the Bible says about it ; for if you go on the one side, 
you will land yourself ultimately in the extreme of 
that humanitarianism which sees in Christ nothing 
more than a man ; while if you move to the other, 
you will find yourself at length in that error of the 
ancient Docetse, who regarded Christ's human body 
as a phantom or mere appearance, and so believed 
only in his deity. The true inductive spirit compels 
us to accept them both, and to hold that he was and 
is God manifest in the flesh. 

We may illustrate this principle, also, by a refer- 
ence to the doctrine of the atonement. When we ex- 
amine the New Testament we find that subject spoken 
of in four different, yet not inconsistent, aspects. It is 
c.iiled a sacrifice, as when Christ is said to have "borne 
our sins," and is designated as " the Lamb of God 
that taketh away the sins of the world." It is styled 
a redemption, as when Paul says, " In Christ we have 
redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness 
of sins ; " and the Lord himself affirms that " The Son 
of man is come to give his life a ransom for many." 
It is characterized as "a declaration of God's right- 
eousness in the forgiveness of sins, that he might be 
just and yet the justifier of him that believeth ; " and 
the same phase of it is presented to us when the 
apostle alleges that " it pleased the Father, having 
made peace by the blood of his cross, by him to 
reconcile all things unto himself," for the making 
peace by the blood of the cross is as evidently some- 
thing prior and in order to the effecting of reconcilia- 
tion, and must, therefore, be equivalent to the dec- 



272 THE INDUCTIVE STUDY OP THE SCFJPTUEES. 

laration of righteousness whereby he is just and yet 
the justifier of the believer. And, finally, it is all 
traced up to the love of God, " who gave his only be- 
gotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should 
not perish but have everlasting life." Thus the death 
of Christ did not purchase God's love for sinners, but 
manifested that love and opened for it a righteous 
channel through which it might flow to guilty men. 
Under one or other of these four heads I believe that 
all the Bible references to this great theme may be 
arranged. But the mere fact that it is presented to 
us in so many different ways is a proof that no one 
mode of speech can fully describe its character, and 
the great source of the discussions which have been 
waged over it is to be found in this, that each dis- 
putant has adopted one of these modes of viewing it, 
as if that contained the whole truth about it and in- 
volved in it the negation of all the rest. But the 
right induction is that which accepts all the four, and 
maintains that the doctrine of the atonement fully 
formulated must be the great whole which accepts 
them all and holds them all in harmony with each 
other. It regards Christ's death as a manifestation 
of God's love in the provision of an all-sufficient sacri- 
fice for human sin, whereby God's righteousness is 
declared in the forgiveness and salvation of believing 
men, usually called their redemption. We have heard 
too much of the 4 moral ' view, and the ' legal ' view, and 
the 'governmental' view, and so forth, of the atone- 
ment. Let us try to get at the Scriptural view, and to 
find that we must not take one passage and make it in- 
terpret all the rest, but we must interrogate them all 
and receive with reverent faith from each its contribu- 
tion to the great result. 

"We may see another field for the application of 



THE INDUCTIVE STUDY OF THE SCRIPTURES. 273 

the same principles in the investigation of the 
difficult questions which cluster about the sover- 
eignty of God and the free agency of man. Y/e 
have some passages which clearly and unequivocally 
declare that " of God and through God and to God 
are all things," and there are others which as cer- 
tainly teach the unfettered moral freedom of man. 
There are some which affirm that believers are chosen 
in Christ before the foundation of the world, and 
others that place salvation unequivocally at the ac- 
ceptance of the sinner's will ; there are some which 
affirm that saints are kept by the power of God 
through faith unto salvation, and others which de- 
clare that " he that is begotten of God keepeth him- 
self." Now, here again the same questions arise : 
Shall we choose the one and reject the other ; or, shall 
we accept both, believing both to be in harmony in 
God, however incomprehensible that harmony may 
now seem to us ? If we take the first alternative, then 
we are guilty of rationalism — for we accept of Script- 
ure just what pleases us, and reject the rest. If we 
take the second, then, though intellectual wiseacres 
may sneer at us as fools, we deal at once reverently 
and inductively with the sacred oracles. The hyper- 
Calvinist runs away with the divine sovereignty, as if 
that were all ; and the Arminian walks off with 
human freedom, as if in that he had found the whole 
truth. But neither of them accepts the full truth, or 
has made a complete induction. It is the old story of 
the knights and the shield over again. Both are cor- 
rect in what they affirm and wrong in what they deny ; 
and, curiously enough, in the union of the affirmations 
of both the full truth is obtained. " It is written," 
the one may truly say ; but " it is written again," the 
other may as truly reply ; and if we are to have a 
12* 



274 THE INDUCTIVE STUDY OE THE SCRIPTURES. 

Scriptural theory, we must hold by both, looking to 
God as if all depended upon him, and at the same 
time exerting ourselves as if all depended upon us. 

But to mention only one illustration more — let me 
take the practical subject of prayer, all the more 
that, just for the neglect of the principles on which I 
have been insisting, many hold the most erroneous 
Views regarding it. It is written : " Every one that 
asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth, and to 
him that knocketh it shall be opened." And again : 
" Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name that will I do, 
that the Father may be glorified in the Son ; if ye 
shall ask anything in my name I will do it." Now 
from these and many similar passages multitudes 
have inferred that by prayer they will obtain anything 
which they choose to seek from God, and some of the 
wildest statements have been made by them in this 
matter, savoring, as I cannot but think, both of super- 
stition and delusion. For it is written again : " If ye 
abide in me and my words abide in you, ye shall ask 
what ye will, and it shall be done unto you." And 
again : " Delight thyself also in the Lord, and he shall 
give thee the desires of thine heart." Moreover, it 
cannot be forgotten that when David fasted and wept 
and prayed for the life of his child, he did not obtain 
that which he desired ; and when Paul besought the 
Lord that the thorn in his flesh might depart from 
him, he did not get the thing which he requested. 
From all this, therefore, it is evident that the univer- 
sal promise is to be understood as qualified by some 
indispensable conditions which connect themselves 
with the character of the suppliant, with the nature 
of the thing requested, and with the purpose and pre- 
rogative of God himself. If the petitioner be not 
abiding in Christ, or if the thing which he seeks be 



THE INDUCTIVE STUDY OF THE SCRIPTURES. 275 

something that will do him real harm, or if by refusing 
his prayer God can train him into something better 
and nobler than he would become if his request were 
granted, then his desire will not be given to him. It 
would be easy to dwell on each of these three condi- 
tions and show you how much is involved in each ; 
but what I now insist upon is that they are conditions 
as constant and as invariable, as in the case of my 
text, the obedience of the command, " Thou shalt not 
tempt the Lord thy God," is alleged to be the condi- 
tion of the fulfillment of the promise, " He shall give 
his angels charge concerning thee." But how seldom 
all this is taken note of by many modern Christians ? 
They seem to think that the Lord exists simply and 
only to answer prayer. They forget that he is the 
Father of his people, and that as such he is disciplin- 
ing his children for heaven. They know, indeed, that 
they train their own children by the manner in which 
they deal with their requests, but they think God as 
a Father is to be so indulgent as to grant them every- 
thing, without regard either to his own honor or to 
their good ; and so they are troubled about their " un- 
answered prayers." But in reality there are only two 
prayers for which we have an unconditional assurance 
that we shall have a full answer. These are : Father, 
glorify thy name," and, "The will of the Lord be 
done "; and as the true believer who abides in Jesus 
has these two petitions as the under-tone of every 
request, he always carries away a blessing. So let 
us not be ignorant, unreasonable and unscriptural in 
our expectations when we pray, but accepting the 
full teaching of the Word of God upon the subject, 
let us make our plea and leave ourselves with joyful 
trust in our Father's hand, full sure that even the 
denial of a request may be itself the means of 



276 THE INDUCTIVE STUDY OF THE SCRIPTURES. 



answering some of tlie deepest yearnings of our 
hearts. 

Many other illustrations of the application of the 
inductive principle to the investigation of the sacred 
Scriptures might be given, but these, must suffice for 
the present. Let me conclude by little more than 
mentioning three important inferences which may be 
drawn from the course of thought which we have 
prosecuted and the remembrance of which may be 
of great service to those who are looking forward to 
the ministry of the Gospel. 

In the first place every heresy has in it a cer- 
tain modicum of truth. The poet has said that 
"There is a soul of goodness in things evil, could 
we observingly distill it out;" and no one can 
read thoughtfully the history of doctrine in the 
Christian Church without discovering that even in 
those systems of error which have from time to 
time made their appearance there has been a side of 
truth. Not only so : the error has been formidable not 
because of the error, but because of the truth that was 
mixed up with it. One can much more easily deal 
with that which is wholly wrong than with that which 
is partly right ; and the great misfortune in controversy 
has been that the defenders of the faith have not always 
had the discrimination to distinguish the fraction of 
truth from the error to which it has given vitality, and 
both have been assailed together. Thus, whether the 
issue were victory or defeat, there was sure to be some 
injury done to truth. "Whenever, therefore, some sys- 
tem of doctrine becomes prevalent, and you see it to 
be dangerous in its tendency yet attractive in its pres- 
entation, accustom yourselves to ask first of all con- 
cerning it what is the portion of truth in it that gives 



THE INDUCTIVE STUDY OP THE SCRIPTURES. 277 

it feasibility, and that will at once indicate how it is 
to be met. 

For, in the second place, the truth thus mixed up 
with error is very generally something that has been 
too largely overlooked. That which has been neglected 
revenges itself at length by claiming more than its due 
share of importance. The continual presentation by 
old divines of the federal theology with its clean-cut 
legal formulae, provoked the assertion that the whole 
virtue of the atonement was of a moral sort, and that 
there was no reference to God's justice or satisfaction 
of law whatever in it. So, again, the constant promi- 
nence given to the deity of Christ and the almost uni- 
versal ignoring of his humanity, swung men off into 
that early Unitarianism which made such exquisite 
use of the brotherhood of the Lord Jesus. And the 
insistence by multitudes on the mechanical verbal- 
dictation theory of inspiration, struck out of Coleridge 
those "Letters of an Inquiring Spirit" which have 
been the germ of almost everything that has been 
written by the Broad School on the subject since his 
day. 

Now if these two general principles be true, you 
will see at once, as a third inference from our subject, 
how error is to be most effectually met. Kecognize 
the portion of truth which it contains. Ering that 
back to its proper importance. Then supplement it 
by putting it along with those other sides of the truth 
which are needed to give it full-balanced completeness. 
Let it be acknowledged fully and frankly " it is writ- 
ten," but then let it be added it is written "again." 
Admit freely the reality of the Eedeemer's manhood, 
but put with that the genuineness of his deity. Con- 
cede willingly the moral theory of the atonement as 
far as it goes ; but make it clear that there is more 



278 THE INDUCTIVE STUDY OF THE SCRIPTURES. 

than that in the Scripture statements on the subject, 
and show that the moral view can have no place un- 
less the other be held along with it : grant all that is 
required concerning the individuality of the inspired 
writers ; but yet insist upon it that through that indi- 
viduality God sent his message to mankind. Thus 
you will kill error without injuring truth. Thus, too, 
you will keep yourselves from becoming narrow-minded 
and intolerant, and will cultivate that spirit not more 
truly philosophic than Christian which is open-eyed 
toward all truth, and welcomes it even when it comes, 
apparently, in no good company. 
January 30, 1881. 



AN OPEN DOOR FOR LITTLE 
STRENGTH. 

Rev. iii. 8. — Behold I have set before thee an open door, and no 
man can shut it ; for thou hast a little strength and hast kept my 
word and hast not denied my name. 

"Thou hast a little strength." The words were 
addressed to the angel of the church at Philadelphia 
by the Lord Jesus after its members had passed, 
with honor, through some fiery ordeal, which had 
been designed by their enemies to make them deny 
his name. They do not mean, as some might be in- 
clined to suppose, that the persecution had been so 
oppressive as wellnigh to exhaust the church, so that 
though it had come off with unstained loyalty, it had 
only a little strength remaining. Rather they de- 
scribe the condition of the church before the terrible 
trial came upon it. From the very beginning its ability 
had been but small. It had never been what outsiders 
would have called a strong church. In numbers, in 
wealth, in rank, in influence, in every other constituent 
which is popularly regarded as contributing to power 
in the world, it had been always poor. Yet small as 
its strength was, its members had stood firm in the 
the face alike of cruel threatenings and alluring 
promises. And lo ! as the reward of their steadfast- 
ness, the Lord declares that he has set before them 
" an open door " which no man could shut. That is 
to say, through the gateway of their fidelity, feeble as 
they were, they went under the leadershir> of Christ 



280 AN OPEN DOOK FOR LITTLE STKENGTH. 

to a spliere of usefulness, which was peculiarly and 
pre-eminently their own, and which no mortal could 
prevent them from filling. Thus interpreted, this 
text has been to me full of comfort and inspiration, 
and I desire to-day to make you sharers with me in 
the blessing it has brought to me. 

" Thou hast but little strength." How many in all 
our congregations may be truly thus addressed ! They 
are painfully conscious of their feebleness, not only 
when they contrast themselves with those who are 
more favorably circumstanced, but also when they 
look abroad on the work which is yet to be done for 
Christ in the world. Sometimes the weakness is 
physical, and the frailness of the body prevents the 
man from undertaking that which, in vigorous health, 
he would have entered upon with joy. Sometimes it 
is intellectual, and as he thinks of the undeniable 
eminence in science and philosophy of some of those 
who are arrayed against God's truth, he is almost 
tempted to wish that he had the ability to cope with 
them in argument and show the fallaciousness of their 
reasonings. Sometimes it is social ; he has little 
wealth, and no great standing in the world ; it may be 
that he is even in a subordinate place as the servant 
of another, and as he desires to do something for 
Christ, and has, perhaps, the claims of different 
causes urged upon him from the pulpit or elsewhere, 
he is apt to become despondent when he discovers that 
he is literally unable, from the necessity of his situa- 
tion, to do anything for any one of them. I believe that 
cases of this kind are commoner than multitudes im- 
agine ; and that there is much secret sorrow in the 
hearts of many humble followers of Christ, because in 
one or other of these ways they are being continually 
made to feel that they have only " a little strength." 



AN OPEN DOOR FOR LITTLE STRENGTH. 281 

Now, I know few passages of Scripture more 
admirably fitted to give encouragement and direc- 
tion to those who are distressed in this way than 
that which is now before us. For one thing it sug- 
gests to us that the having of but little strength is not 
a matter of which we need to be ashamed. The Lord 
here does not blame the Philadelphians for their 
feebleness. There is not a single syllable of reproof 
in this whole letter ; and we must not suppose that 
weakness is always and of necessity wickedness. If 
one has brought it upon himself by his own iniquity, 
then it may be a matter of disgrace ; but if it come in 
the allotment of God's providence, there is no moral 
reproach to be associated with it. No doubt the 
tendency among men is to despise feebleness. The 
law of " the survival of the fittest," whether there be 
much or little in it in natural science, is certainly not 
unknown in human life, for almost invariably by 
selfishness the weakest is driven to the wall. If a 
boy has some constitutional defect, whether lameness 
of foot, or obliquity of vision, or impediment of 
speech, it will too often be turned into ridicule by his 
companions ; and in this matter I am afraid that 
many men may truly be described as children of a 
larger growth. So, because in common society weak- 
ness is too often counted a reproach by men, the 
feeble Christian is apt to think that God will despise 
him because he has only a little strength. But that is 
not the case. Look again at this epistle. Christ did not 
overlook the church of Philadelphia, weak though it 
was ; and neither does he now forget his feeble children. 
Is it not written, "A bruised reed shall he not break, 
and the smoking flax shall he not quench " ? Nay, 
do we not see in the description of the children's 
angels as beholding the face of God, that the care of 



282 



AN OPEN DOOR FOE LITTLE STRENGTH. 



the least is the special charge of the highest ? Lack 
of strength, therefore, so far from making us the ob- 
jects of the Divine contempt;, only gives us a new 
claim upon his assistance. Whoever may upbraid us 
with our weakness, we may be sure that Jesus never 
will ; and if he do not condemn us for it, why should 
we be ashamed of it in the sight of men ? He giveth 
power to the faint and to them that have no might 
he increaseth strength. 

But more than this, when we take this letter and read 
it in connection with the others which have been framed 
and hung up here for our perusal in the porch of the 
book of Kevelation, there is suggested to us the truth 
that the having of but a little strength may even come 
to be, in some respects, an advantage. For it is not 
a little remarkable that the two churches which 
received unqualified commendation are those of 
Smyrna and Philadelphia, neither of which was strong 
in the ordinary sense of the term ; while on the other 
hand the severest reproof is addressed to the church 
of Laodicea, which any outsider would have spoken 
of as at once prosperous and influential. Thus we are 
reminded that where there is much strength there is 
also a disposition to trust in that ; while, on the other 
hand, where there is conscious feebleness there is felt 
also the necessity of making application for the might 
of the Most High. That was the secret of Paul's 
paradox, " "When I am weak, then am I strong ; " and 
there are many among us who feel that if it had not 
been for the blessing of God imparted to them 
through physical affliction, or pecuniary straits, they 
might, and in all probability would, have grown 
proud and defiant, and thus might have cut them- 
selves off from the grace of God. So let the weak 
be reconciled to his weakness, and accept it as 



AN OPEN DOOE FOR LITTLE STRENGTH, 283 



being the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning 
him. 

But pursuing this line of thought a little farther we 
may see from my text that the having of only a little 
strength does not utterly disqualify us from serving 
the Lord. Feeble as they were, the Philadelphians 
had kept Christ's word and had not denied his name. 
They glorified him where they were, and in the man- 
ner appropriate to their circumstances. They kept 
their loyalty to him even in their weakness. And it 
is possible for every one of us to do the same. If 
God has given us only one talent, he does not hold us 
responsible for five. If my strength is small he does 
not require of me that which only a larger measure of 
power could enable me to perform. "Wherever I am, 
it is enough if there I keep his word ; and however 
limited be my resources, he asks no more than that I 
use all these resources in advancing the honor of his 
name. He is no hard master, reaping where he has 
not sown, and gathering where he has not strewn. If 
he has not given me wealth, he asks only that I con- 
secrate my poverty to him. If he has not bestowed 
upon me commanding intellectual abilities, he seeks 
only that I use those which I possess in serving him ; 
and if " obstacles and trials seem like prison walls to 
be," he requires only that I do the little that I can, 
and leave the rest to him. Nay, if there is nothing 
active that I can undertake, it will be sufficient if I 
resist all temptations to let go his word and to deny 
his name. From this none of us can excuse himself, 
and every one who earnestly sets himself to act after 
this fashion may rely upon the assurance, " My grace 
is sufficient for thee ; my strength is made perfect in 
weakness." 

Still further, if we proceed upon this principle, my 



284 AN OPEN DOOR FOR LITTLE STRENGTH. 



text affirms that a wider sphere will be ultimately 
opened up to us. Look at it again : "I have set be- 
fore thee an open door, for thou hast but little strength 
and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name." 
Fidelity is rewarded by greater opportunity. " He that 
is faithful in that which is least " is promoted to that 
which is greater, and has given to him a loftier posi- 
tion and a wider range. The man who is always mur- 
muring over the limits of his lot will never do 
anything in the world. He whose pride is wounded 
because he has received only one talent will be sure 
to bury that one in the earth. But if he will only use 
his little all to purpose, laying it out to usury with 
faithfulness, earnestness, and prayer, he will find at 
length his opportunities doubled. Thus it is always 
that men have risen, alike in the church and in the 
world, to the thrones of their individual power. From 
those who have not, even that which they have is sure 
to be taken away ; but they who have begun by doing 
their little faithfully have risen through that into 
something nobler, and through that again to some- 
thing higher, until at length they have reached a 
position which at first seemed quite beyond the pos- 
sibility of their attainment. They have had set before 
them an open door, which none has been able to shut. 
Fidelity always rises. It is, in fact, irrepressible ; for 
when Christ says to it, " Come up higher," no one can 
hold it down. 

Such, as it seems to me, are the main teachings of 
this suggestive verse, and if I have been right in thus 
interpreting it, one or two inferences of a wholesome 
sort will follow. 

I. In the first place we may learn that usefulness is 
not the primary object of the Christian's attention. I 



AN OPEN DOOR FOR LITTLE STRENGTH. 285 



would not be understood, indeed, as seeking in any 
way to discourage those whose desire it is to benefit 
their fellow men by leading them to the Lord Jesus. 
It is right to aim after the welfare of those who are 
still ignorant and out of the way. But I am persuaded 
that many among us fail in securing that because we 
do not seek it in the right manner. We are apt to 
make it a primary and immediate end in and of itself, 
and to forget that the first thing Christ sets us to do 
is to be faithful where we are, by keeping his word 
and confessing his name. Usefulness is the result of 
character, and therefore character ought to have our 
earliest care. Not what we can do for others, but 
rather what we are in ourselves, demands our first 
attention, for to do good to others we must first be 
good ourselves. Usefulness is to character what 
fragrance is to the flower. But the gardener does not 
make the fragrance his first or greatest aim. Nay, 
rather his grand design is to produce a perfect flower, 
for he knows if he succeed in that the fragrance will 
come of itself. In the same way the Christian's first 
concern should be with his own character. His prime 
ambition ought to be, where he is, to keep Christ's 
word and to confess his name ; and when he has 
succeeded in that, the door to legitimate and lasting 
usefulness will open to him of itself, or, rather, 
Christ will open it for him and no man will be able 
to shut it. 

The first results of our Christianity are to be looked 
for not in the effects of our work upon others, but in 
the development of holiness in ourselves ; and when 
our characters are thus Christianized we shall find 
through them a short and easy way to usefulness, for 
indeed the effluence of them will be the finest means 
of telling upon others. Hence I cannot but regard it 



286 



AN OPEN DOOR FOE LITTLE STRENGTH. 



as unfortunate and indeed unnatural when young con- 
verts who have only just found their way to Christ, 
are encouraged forthwith to begin to labor among 
others. They may be instrumental in doing some- 
thing, but in that way they will never attain to any- 
thing like the highest usefulness. Their first duty is 
in the sphere in which Christ found them, to keep his 
word and to confess his name. Their first care ought 
to be for the manifestation of the Christian character 
in the lowly and limited place to which they origin- 
ally belonged, and through their faithfulness in that 
the Lord will open up for them a door to something 
higher. To be holy is our primary duty, and through 
that we pass to usefulness. If, therefore, there be 
those before me who are eager for the crown that is 
to be won by turning many to righteousness, let me 
urge them not to go after that in the wrong way. The 
shortest path to it is not that which seeks it directly, 
but that which lies through faithful holiness in the 
discharge of duty or the endurance of trial where you 
are. Nor let any one be discouraged if by reason of the 
pressure of immediate obligations, or the circumscrib- 
ing influence of weakness or of suffering, he may seem 
to be shut out from doing anything for others. That 
which he has to look to for the moment is the cultiva- 
tion of holiness within the limits of his providential 
surroundings, and it is only through the keeping of 
Christ's word by himself there, that he is to expect 
the opening of a door into wider work among others. 
Everything in its own order, and here the order is, 
first, cultivation of personal holiness, and then the 
attainment of a sphere of usefulness. 

II. But if these things are so, we have as, another 
inference suggested from this text, an easy explana- 



AN OPEN DOOR FOR LITTLE STRENGTH. 287 

tion of the great usefulness of many who are in no 
wise noteworthy for strength. Few things are more 
commonly spoken of among men than the fact that 
the most successful soul-winners in the ministry are 
not always those who are most conspicuous for intel- 
lectual ability or argumentative power. If you take 
up the sermons, for example, of John Wesley or of 
George Whitefield, you will find it hard to believe 
that such effects as we read of in the records of the 
period were produced by them. In point of mental 
power and suggestiveness they are not for a moment 
to be put into comparison with those of many other 
men who had apparently scarcely any success ; and if 
we look at the sermons alone, there is no explanation 
of their results to be found in them. But no printing- 
press can reproduce the preacher ; and the secret of 
the power in all such cases was in the men. Their 
greatness was their goodness. Their holy char- 
acters, formed and molded by the Spirit of God, ex- 
haled through their discourses, and these gave them 
their usefulness. In the same way you will some- 
times find a church whose members are poor in this 
world's goods, and not remarkable for that culture 
which modern circles have so largely deified, yet 
famous for its good works among the masses, and 
foremost in the successes which it has achieved in 
evangelistic work ; and when you look into the matter 
you find the explanation in the consecrated characters 
and lives of those who are associated in its fellow- 
ship. They have sought their usefulness through 
their holiness, and not their holiness through their 
usefulness ; and therefore it is they have had such 
signal triumphs. On the other hand, when we see 
churches great in numbers, wealthy in resources, and 
fully equipped with all the machinery required for 



288 



AN OPEN DOOR FOR LITTLE STRENGTH. 



home missionary work, yet mourning over their lack 
of success in its prosecution, my text suggests a pos- 
sible explanation of the anomaly. Their communion 
roils, perhaps, are burdened with those who are not 
distinguished for holiness, and who have a name that 
they live while they are dead. Their members, it may 
be, are lacking in consecration ; they are not thorough- 
going in the maintenance of the principles of the gos- 
pel in their daily lives, they are unfaithful to their 
profession in their conduct, and so Christ has shut 
the door in the face of their church, and no man can 
open it. "When we are unsuccessful in work for others, 
let us see whether it be not because we are some- 
where unfaithful in our motives. Israel could not 
take Ai when Achan with his hidden wickedness was 
in the camp ; and who can tell how sorely our churches 
are crippled in their work, and how largely their ex- 
ertions are neutralized by the inconsistencies of those 
who are nominally connected with them. "When doors 
are closed against us it is time to inquire whether it 
be not true that we have not been keeping the 
Lord's word, and have been denying his name. 
Unfaithfulness shuts us out of opportunity. A man 
is useless because he has been heedless of the Word ; 
a church is useless because it has denied Christ's 
name. The thought is full of solemnity alike for 
minister and people, and if it should be that we are 
mourning over our comparative failure in telling on 
the outlying world, let us search and see lest the 
cause of our lack of success be not in our denial some- 
where of the Lord that bought us. Nor let us forget 
that the noblest contribution we can give to the 
work of the church is our own personal holiness, for 
without that no money offering can be fully blessed, 
and yet, even if we be poor in this world's goods, that 



AN OPEN DOOR FOB LITTLE STRENGTH. 289 



is a gift which we may always lay upon Christ's altar 
if we will. 

III. Finally, if the principles which I have tried to 
deduce from this text are true, we see at once how such 
apparently opposite things as Christian contentment 
and Christian ambition are to be perfectly harmonized. 
The full discharge of duty on the lower level opens 
the passage up into the higher. "We see that illus- 
trated in secular departments, if I may call them so, 
every day. If the school-boy wishes to gain a high 
and honorable position as a man, he must be content, 
so long as he is at school, to go through its daily 
round, and perform in the best possible manner its 
common duties. The better he is as a scholar, the 
more surely will the door into eminence open for him 
as a man. But if he trifle away his time, if he neg- 
lect his work, if he despise what he calls the " drudge- 
ry " of education, and so leave school without hav- 
ing learned those things which he was sent thither to 
to acquire, then there will be nothing for him in after 
days but humiliation and failure. Doors enow may 
open to him, but he will never be ready to enter one 
of them, and will be to the last, unless he go back and 
make up for what he has lost, a useless hanger-on to 
the skirts of society. In the same way if a servant 
would seek to be a master, the shortest way to that 
end is for him to accept his present lot and be in it 
the very best of servants. He who is always schem- 
ing for a sudden elevation, as if he would vault at one 
leap into the chair of his ambition, never reaches it 
in that way ; or if he do, he cannot keep in it. But 
the wise plan is to be content for the time with the 
place we have, and show the highest excellence in fill- 
ing that ; for in the long run the door always opens 
13 



290 AN OPEN DOOR FOR LITTLE STRENGTH. 

before character. The " candidating minister " who 
is forever gadding about among vacant churches 
seeking a suitable sphere, until at length he becomes 
known as the " solicitor-general," never gets one to 
his mind. But the man who is conspicuously diligent 
where he is, and is doing there his utmost for the 
honor of the Lord, will be sought for by others with- 
out any agency of his own, and will receive the recog- 
nition of the Master in a nobler opportunity. 

Now it is not otherwise in every other department. 
The first thing we have to do, if we would pass from a 
lower to a higher post of usefulness, is to adapt our- 
selves thoroughly to our present sphere, and set our- 
selves diligently to perform its duties. If we are con- 
scious of its limitations then let us not rebel against 
them, but accept them and make the best possible 
work within them. Then when we have turned our 
little strength to good account, we shall find the door 
opened to us by the Master's hand. Contentment 
with the present thus, paradoxical as it may seem, is 
the surest means of securing in the future that on 
which, as Christians, we are taught to set our desires. 
Fretting over our weakness will not make things bet- 
ter, but it will prevent us from bringing anything out 
of the little strength we have. He who is constantly 
complaining that he has no more, makes little or no 
use of that which he has ; whereas the man who is 
reconciled for the moment to his position and delib- 
erately seeks to serve God in the best way there, is 
already in the sure and safe way to promotion. This 
is a most important consideration, for it brings all the 
hopes of the future and focuses them on the duties of 
the present, making the commendation of the Judge at 
last depend upon even so small a thing as the giving 
of a cup of cold water to a disciple in his name, or 



AN OPEN DOOR FOR LITTLE STRENGTH. 291 

the visiting for his sake of one of his imprisoned 
brethren. 

Here, then, is comfort as well as direction for the 
weak. Present fidelity is the door through which 
we pass to future eminence. The disciple of the 
Lord is content with the sphere in which he is 
placed ; but he seeks to fill that thoroughly, in order 
that he may rise the sooner to something better. 
Nor does he seek in vain, for the Lord does not over- 
look the faithfulness of the feeble, but opens for them 
a door of opportunity which all the sticklers for 
ecclesiastical propriety, and all the votaries of intel- 
lects culture, and all the influences of fashionable 
society will not be able to shut. And then when the 
best use has been made of earth's opportunities, 
when he has employed to the utmost in the Master's 
service and the service of his generation that strength 
which even at its best in this life is but small, the 
Lord will open for him the door of heaven, saying, 
" Well done, good and faithful servant ; thou hast 
been faithful over a few things ; I will make thee ruler 
over many things; enter thou into the joy of thy 
Lord." 

October 31, 1880. 



THE SORROWFUL "IF. 



John xi. 21 and 32. Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brothel 
nad not died. 

Every reader of the Gospels is perfectly familiar 
even with the minutest details of this most interesting 
chapter. For that reason, therefore, and also because 
the most important points in it will come incidentally 
up as we follow the line of thought which I have 
marked out for this discourse, I shall not attempt to 
give you any summary of the narrative by way of in- 
troduction, but proceed at once to indicate and illus- 
trate the practical and experimental truths which it 
suggests. 

I. Notice, then, in the first place, that the friends of 
Jesus are not exempted from affliction in the world. 
If such immunity might have been expected in any 
case, it surely would have been in that of the members 
of the Bethany family who so often received and en- 
tertained the Lord. The household consisted of three 
members — a brother and two sisters — to each of 
whom Christ was bound by ties of human friendship, 
as well as of spiritual fellowship. He was, in fact, 
almost like another brother in the family, one to 
whom they were all most tenderly attached, and who 
loved them very specially in return. Their house was 
one of the few places — perhaps the only place — on 
earth in which he was perfectly at home. Thither he 
often went after a weary day of labor and debate with 



THE SORROWFUL " IF." 



293 



the Jews in the streets of Jerusalem or in the courts 
of the temple, and there he always found congenial 
companionship unshadowed by the presence of ene- 
mies who were watching to entangle him in his talk. 
No painful association connects itself with Bethany. 
We cannot think of Bethlehem without remembering 
the massacre of the infants ; of Nazareth without re- 
calling the rejection of the Saviour by the men of the 
city in which " he had been brought up ; " of Caper- 
naum, without recollecting the woe which its inhab- 
itants drew down upon their heads ; of Jerusalem, 
without having brought to mind the sad scene of the 
crucifixion ; but Bethany is linked only to memories 
of blessedness, and the home of Lazarus stands out 
from among the scenes of the gospel history with a 
sacredness that is peculiar to itself; for there the 
Lord Jesus was honored and beloved. Yet, dear as 
Christ was to its inmates, and tenderly as they were 
regarded by him, they were not on that account 
exempt from affliction ; for here we have these state- 
ments in the closest proximity. "Now Jesus loved 
Martha and her sister and Lazarus ; " and again : " A 
certain man was sick, named Lazarus, of Bethany, the 
town of Mary, and her sister Martha." 

This suggests the question, why affliction is sent upon 
those who are the friends of God ? It is the old problem 
which J ob and his three visitors debated, and which, 
taken in connection with the frequent prosperity of 
the wicked, perplexed the souls of the authors of the 
37th and 73d psalms ; and though the full materials 
for its solution are not furnished to us anywhere, we 
may yet find some light cast upon it by this and other 
portions of the word of God. For we may conclude that 
such trial is not necessarily the result of any special sin. 
Even in regard to those who had no such tender rela- 



294 



THE SORROWFUL " IF." 



tionship to himself, the Saviour warned his disciples 
against drawing the inference that particular suffering 
is always the consequence of some particular wicked- 
ness, and in a case like that of Lazarus and his sisters, 
it is clear that all such reasoning would be unwar- 
ranted. Nay, more, in affirming, as he did in answer 
to the application of the sisters, that " This sickness 
is for the glory of God, that the Son of God might 
be glorified thereby," he laid down a general principle 
which may guide us in all similar instances. The 
great design of God in the affliction of his people is 
to show the exceeding riches of his grace, and thus to 
commend himself to them as the strength of their 
hearts and their portion forever. And if it be asked 
in what respects his glory is thus advanced through 
the trial of his own, different answers must be given 
to the question. It may be so in the development of 
the character of the afflicted one himself; for there can 
be no doubt that spiritual growth is often promoted by 
such discipline. Hezekiah is not the only one who 
has felt and said that" By these things men live." 
Luther numbered trials as among his best instruct- 
ors ; and the Psalmist records the experience of 
multitudes when he says: " It is good for me that I 
have been afflicted." Again the afflictions of God's 
people may redound to his glory in their effect upon 
others, either as silencing the gainsayer, or as convert- 
ing the careless, or as educating the weak believer into 
stronger faith. The calamities of Job came on him to 
prove the utter falseness of the assertion made by 
Satan, that the truly godly man is moved only by 
utilitarian considerations, and serves the Lord simply 
for what he can make thereby ; and I have no doubt 
that even in our own days many Christians have been 
sorely afflicted, just to show to the scoffing crew by 



THE SORROWFUL "IF.' 



295 



whom they were surrounded how sure and abiding 
their confidence was, and how lovingly God could 
sustain them in the deepest distress. Sometimes, 
again, through the sufferings of a believing friend the 
indifferent have been awakened and led to the Lord. 
The affliction of a parent has been, as we express it, 
" sanctified " to a son or a daughter ; and the illness of 
a companion, borne with Christian submission, has led 
many a man to Christ ; while, again, a weak believer 
has often been strengthened by the sight of the calm 
bearing and simple trustfulness of a dear one on whom 
God's hand has been laid. Christ said to his followers 
in this very case : " I am glad, for your sakes, that I 
was not there, to the intent ye may believe." We have 
all known such instances, and when we think it through 
we come to see that vicarious suffering is not confined 
to Christ. In the highest sacrificial sense of the words, 
indeed, we must say that no one ever suffered for others 
as He did ; but in a lower sense it is true that believers 
often do suffer for others ; and when their benefit is se- 
cured thereby, the afflicted ones discover that their sick- 
ness has really been for the glory of God, so that they 
enter in a very real way into " the fellowship of the Sav- 
iour's sufferings." I think if this view were more fre- 
quently taken, affliction would not so often lead the suf- 
ferer to morbid introspection, as if God was somehow 
offended with him and it was essential that he should 
search in himself for some reason for his trial ; while, 
again, it would sustain him under his visitation with 
the hope that others might be benefited through his 
tribulation. If Lazarus or his sisters could have 
foreseen all that was to result from the trial to which 
they were subjected, they would have been thoroughly 
upheld thereby ; and their history is written here from 
first to last, just to give us a revelation of the possi- 



296 



THE SORROWFUL "IF." 



bilities that may spring out of our sorrows. These 
considerations may not, perhaps, quite solve the prob- 
lem why the friends of Jesus are afflicted, but they 
do most undoubtedly lessen the mystery, and they 
may serve to put a staff into our hands when God 
shall cause us to walk through the valley of shadow. 
In any case the narrative on which now I am com- 
menting, ought to keep us from rashly concluding 
that because we are afflicted we cannot be the objects 
of the love of God. When the teacher desires to dem- 
onstrate his own excellence as an instructor he takes 
his ripest scholar and subjects him to the sorest ex- 
amination, not because he is suspicious of his attain- 
ments, but just because he knows that they are so 
thorough : so sometimes I think the Lord exposes his 
dearest people to fiery trials, not because he would 
expose their weakness, but because he knows their 
strength, and would thereby commend that grace by 
which they stand to the acceptance of their fellow men. 
If he had not been so sure of Mary and Martha they 
might have been spared, at this time, the affliction 
which befell them ; but it came on them that, through 
them, untold multitudes might be blessed. This may 
be a view of the matter that is strange to some of you, 
but I am sure it is a right view, and I have dwelt 
upon it now because of the consolation which it 
yields. 

II. But notice now, in the second place, that the 
friends of Jesus in their affliction turn directly and 
immediately to him. So soon as Martha and Mary 
awoke to the seriousness of their brother's illness, 
they sent unto Christ a messenger to say : " Lord, he 
whom thou lovest is sick." They believed that he 
was " the Christ, the Son of God, that should come 



THE SORROWFUL " IF." 



237 



Into the world," and they made instant application 
unto him in that capacity. They knew his power ; 
they cherished fondly the remembrance of their happy 
fellowship with him, and they trusted implicitly in 
his grace — so implicitly, indeed, that they made no 
definite request, but contented themselves with the 
simple announcement of their brother's distress, be- 
lieving that no more was needed to bring the Lord 
Jesus to their side. Yet even in making this intima- 
tion, their confidence was not in anything about them- 
selves or Lazarus, but simply in himself. They did 
not say, " He who loves thee," but rather, " He whom 
thou lovest." It was an appeal to his own heart, all 
the more eloquent because it left the manner of the 
response entirely to himself, and made no suggestion 
as to how he should relieve them. It was enough for 
them to make sure that he simply knew their need. 
Just as the disciples of John the Baptist, when they 
had lost their master by the cruel deed of Herod, 
" went and told Jesus," so these sisters in their hour 
of extremity sent straight to the Lord. Now here is 
an example for us, for, though Jesus is no longer upon 
the earth, we may repair to him in all our time of 
trouble ; nay, just because he is no longer on the earth, 
we may get to him more easily than these sorrowing 
sisters did ; for their messenger had to go away 
across the Jordan to Bethabara before they could 
reach him, but now we can breathe a prayer into his 
ear at any time and in any place, with the full assur- 
ance that he hears our request. 

Nor have we here only an example, for we may 
make of the conduct of the Bethany sisters a test 
wherewith to try ourselves. To whom do we go first 
in the time of our extremity ? What is our resource 
in the day of trouble ? To what refuge do we run when 
13* 



298 



THE SORROWFUL "IF." 



calamity is overtaking us ? Can we say with David, 
"From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee when 
my heart is overwhelmed? " or do we betake ourselves 
to some other helper ? The answer to these questions 
will determine whether we are the friends of Jesus or 
not. To take an illustration which I have used else- 
where : " Traveling once upon a railroad car, I had 
among my fellow passengers a little laughing child 
who romped about and was at home with everybody, 
and while she was frolicking around it might have been 
difficult to tell to whom she belonged, she seemed so 
much the property of every one ; but when the engine 
gave a loud, long shriek, and we went rattling into a 
dark tunnel, the little one made one bound and ran to 
nestle in a lady's lap. I knew then who was her 
mother ! " * So in the day of prosperity it may be 
occasionally difficult to say whether a man is a Chris- 
tian or not ; but when, in time of trouble, he makes 
straight for Christ, we know then most surely whose 
he is and whom he serves. Take a note of it, then, 
and when affliction comes, observe to whom you flee 
for succor — for that will tell you whether you are or 
are not a friend of Jesus. 

III. Notice, now, in the third place, that the re- 
sponse of the Lord comes often in such a way as 
seems to aggravate the evil. Instead of hastening at 
once to Bethany, the Saviour sent for answer these 
words : " This sickness is not unto death, but for the 
glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified 
thereby ;" and deliberately remained where he was 
for two days, so that when the messenger returned, 
Lazarus was dead. How strange it all seems, and how 
bewildered the sisters must have been ! First of all, 



* David, King of Israel, p. 145. 



THE SOEEOWFUL "IF. ; ' 



299 



the Master did not come, and therefore it looked as if 
he did not heed their distress. Then their brother 
died, though they might perhaps have expected that, 
as in the case of the servant of the centurion, Jesus 
would have spoken the word where he was, and their 
brother would have been healed. Then, after Lazarus 
had died, their courier came back with the assurance 
from the lips of Jesus, " This sickness is not unto 
death/' "What could they make of all this? "We 
now, looking at the history as a whole, can see the 
meaning of the mystery. But to them, as they were 
passing through the suspense, the ordeal must have 
been severe, and the conduct of the Lord incompre- 
hensible. When, however, we read this history in the 
light of other narratives, we see here only a paral- 
lel case to the treatment of Jacob by the Lord at 
Peniel, and that of the Syrophenician woman by 
Jesus on the coasts of Tyre, and that of the disciples 
while they " toiled in rowing " all through the night 
upon the tempestuous lake. He delayed only that 
he might bring a larger blessing when he did come, 
and might thereby discipline a weak faith into 
strength, as well as furnish a support to his afflicted 
people in every after age. And when we get to the per- 
ception of that truth, we understand the striking lan- 
guage of the Evangelist as he records the fact (verses 
5 and 6) : " Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, 
and Lazarus," " when he had heard, therefore, that he 
was sick, he abode two days still in the same place 
where he was." He loved them, therefore he did not 
come immediately at their call. That looks like a 
non sequitur, but it is the sober truth. He had in 
store for them a greater kindness than they could 
have dreamed of ; and therefore he delayed until he 
could confer that upon them. It seemed that their 



300 



THE SORROWFUL " IF." 



prayer was unanswered ; but the answer was deferred 
only that it should be surpassingly benignant. The faith 
of the Roman centurion was rewarded by the cure of 
his servant; but the faith of beloved friends like 
Martha and Mary was to be surprised by the yet 
grander gift of the restoration of Lazarus from the 
grave. They did not know it at the time ; if they 
had known it, what a burden would have been taken 
from their hearts ; but we know it, and that should 
keep us from ever being burdened with anxiety about 
the treatment of our prayers. When, therefore, the 
Lord seems to stay away from us though we cry to 
him ; when that which we request from him appears 
to be denied to us ; when the gathering storm 
grows darker, and at length, in spite of our ap- 
plication unto him, breaks over our heads, let us re- 
member the peculiar " therefore " of this narrative, 
and " be still." There is nothing for us at such a 
time but to wait in patient, trustful expectation ; but 
when we get to the end we shall see that there was 
love in the discipline, and shall give our glad indorse- 
ment to the good Toplady's lines : 

" Blest is the man, God, 

That stays himself on tbee ; 
"Who wait for thy salvation, Lord, 
Shall thy ealvation see." 

IY. But advancing another step, observe, in the 
fourth place, that the friends of Jesus have different 
individualities, but a common danger in their sorrow. 
The peculiarities of these two sisters are very marked, 
and it is a striking proof of the truthfulness of the 
Evangelists Luke and John, that, though they wrote 
independently of each other, and describe Martha and 
Mary in quite different circumstances, we clearly 
recognize the similarity of the portraits which they 



THE SORROWFUL ' IF." 



301 



draw. Luke describes tlieni as entertaining Jesus as 
their guest ; and in his picture we see in Martha the 
kind-hearted hostess, stirring about in earnest activity 
to have on her table everything of the best for her 
Lord. Indeed such was her eagerness in that regard 
that she was " cumbered with much serving," and 
could give attention to little else for the time. She has 
been harshly blamed by many commentators for that, 
because they have forgotten that it was Christ whom 
she was seeking to serve, and that in these attentions 
she was showing her love to him in her own way, just 
as Mary showed hers, in her way, by breaking the 
alabaster box of precious ointments over his feet, and 
by sitting reverently to hear his word. She did not 
understand the Lord so thoroughly as Mary did, but 
she loved him just as earnestly, and believed in him 
just as implicitly. Mary's nature was deeper than 
Martha's, and she would at any time have chosen 
rather to hear the Lord utter his suggestive sentences 
on the profoundest themes, than to partake of the 
richest banquet that could be set before her. So in 
the account of the feast, in Luke, she shows to most 
advantage. But such a brooding spirit is always 
more affected by grief than is an active soul ; and hence, 
in the narrative of John here, Martha shows to the 
greater advantage, as being the first to welcome Jesus, 
and as having composure to converse with him upon 
their trial. Mary was utterly prostrated. She took 
no notice of the announcement of the Saviour's 
arrival ; and so completely overwhelmed was she, 
that when at length she rose to accompany her sister, 
those who were beside her said, "She goeth to the 
grave to weep there ; " while when she came to the 
Saviour she fell at his feet in a paroxysm of grief, and 
could only articulate through her sobs a few words of 



302 



THE SOKKOWFUL " IF." 



broken agony. Thus while at the feast the com- 
posure was Mary's, at the grave the composure was 
Martha's ; and that just because of the deeper nature 
of the one and the more active disposition of the 
other. A superficial reader might be apt to say that 
the two pictures are utterly inconsistent ; but a pro- 
founder study will only make it plain that the sorrow 
of each is stamped with the same individuality that 
was so conspicuous at the feast. Thus, as Dr. Cand- 
lish* says, " In different circumstances, the same nat- 
ural temper may be either an advantage or a snare. 
Martha was never so much occupied in the emotion 
of one scene or subject as not to be on the alert 
and ready for the call to another. This was a disad- 
vantage to her when she was so hurried that she 
could not withdraw herself from household cares to 
wait upon the Word of Life. It is an advantage 
to her now, that she can, with comparative ease, 
shake off her depression and hasten of her own 
accord to meet her Lord. The same profound feeling, 
again, which made Mary the more attentive listener 
before, makes her the most helpless sufferer now, 
and disposes her almost to nurse her grief until Jesus, 
her best comforter, sends specially and emphatically 
to rouse her." I am particular to note all this, be- 
cause from one-sided expositors Martha has received 
anything but just appreciation, and because the pros- 
tration of Mary in the time of affliction has been 
almost entirely overlooked. 

But though thus there was individuality in their 
sorrow, they had both fallen before the same 
temptation, for both alike said to Jesus: "Lord, 
if thou hadst been here my brother had not died." 



* " Scripture Characters,'" by E. S. Candlish, D.D., p. 235. 



THE SORROWFUL ' IF." 



303 



This was not a reproach of him, but it was a con- 
viction deeply entertained by them, and because it 
was the first utterance of both to Jesus we may 
infer that it had been often said between them- 
selves during his mysterious absence. And yet, deep 
as the conviction in their hearts was, we can see that 
it was wrong. For as we know the Lord Jesus was 
there. He could say to his disciples, even at Bethab- 
ara, " Lazarus is dead." He was at Bethany, there- 
fore, in his omniscience, and being so, he was there 
also in his omnipresence and omnipotence. They did 
not know it, but it was none the less true : he was there 
and yet their brother died. 

Again, they had no warrant for their belief that if 
he had been visibly with them their brother's life 
would have been saved. That was merely their own 
supposition. For anything they knew, he might have 
permitted Lazarus to languish and die, even if he had 
been their guest at the time, in order that some larger 
and more lasting blessing than his recovery would 
have been might be conferred upon them. So their 
feeling, however natural, was simply wrong ; and 
wrong as it was, it added a bitter element to their 
grief, for ifc led them to say that their affliction might 
have been prevented, and so it opened the way to 
murmuring and made resignation harder. 

But it is much easier to point out the error of the 
sisters here than it is to keep from falling into it 
ourselves. For unhappily, in all our trials, we are 
prone to lose sight of the universality of God's 
providence, and to torment ourselves with this un- 
believing "if," Have we lost a dear friend by 
death ? — then we are apt to exclaim : " If we had 
only taken it in time ; " " if we had only been able 
to get our own physician;" "if we had only called 



304 



THE SORROWFUL "IF." 



in the help of that eminent medical man;" or "if 
we had gone with him in time to some milder cli- 
mate, then he might not have died," and so forth. 
Have we become involved in business perplexities ? — ■ 
then the burden of our complaint is : " If our debtors 
had not disappointed us, or if we could only have 
received temporary help from our friends, we might 
have tided over the embarrassment and need not have 
suspended." Have we lost some object on which our 
hearts were set ? — still the refrain is : "If,if, if, then we 
might have retained it." But all this is utterly unbe- 
lieving, for it proceeds on the principle that the 
providence of God is not concerned in everything, 
and it gives to secondary causes a supremacy that 
does not belong to them. The Christian utterance is 
that of Paul : " We know that all things work together 
for good to them who love God " : All things, not 
simply those which are apparently prosperous, but 
those also that are seemingly adverse ; all things, not 
merely those which depend on the operations of ex- 
ternal nature, but those also which are the results of 
the actions of voluntary agents. Until we get to this 
belief we can have no solid comfort in the hour of 
trial. Look away, therefore, all ye who are afflicted, 
from mere secondary causes, and have faith in the 
providence of him without whom a sparrow cannot 
fall to the ground. When calamity comes upon you, 
be sure that it is not because this or that accident 
prevented relief, nor because the Saviour was not with 
you, but because it was his will, and his will only, to 
bring about that which shall be better for you and 
others than your deliverance would have been. Be 
still and confide in him, and soon your mourning will 
be ended by the discovery that he hath done all 
things well. " All these things are against me," said 



THE SOREOWUL " IF. 9 



305 



the sorrowful Jacob when lie was asked to let Ben- 
jamin go with his brothers into Egypt, bui he lived 
to see that they were all for him, for God was in them 
all, and Joseph could say to his brethren : " Ye 
thought evil against me ; but God meant it unto good, 
to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people 
alive." God meant it unto good. Yes, that is a more 
wholesome way of looking at things than it is to deal 
in "ifs" and when we get to that conviction it will not 
be so hard to wait in patience for the issue. 

V. But now, finally, let me ask you to observe that 
the friends of Jesus have a blessed end to all their 
sorrows. You know the sequel of this touching his- 
tory. At the command of Jesus, Lazarus was recalled 
to life, and in the joy of receiving him back to their 
fellowship and affection all the mystery of the dark 
dispensation was made clear to the gladdened sisters, 
while by the whole discipline, as well as by the 
words which the Master himself had spoken to 
them, their faith was quickened, their characters were 
strengthened, and they were the better prepared for 
the deeper, darker, and more tremendous mystery of 
his own crucifixion and burial. Now, of course, we 
cannot expect just such an issue to our afflictions 
as that ; but without any straining of interpretation, 
I think we may say that in all this we have a prophecy 
and prelude of the ultimate result of all our earthly 
trials, when in the higher resurrection life we shall 
be reunited to the loved ones who before us have 
fallen asleep in Jesus, and shall look back from the 
vantage ground of heaven upon all God's providential 
dealings with us here below. Then broken fellow- 
ships shall be resumed, and those chapters in our 
histories which seemed here the most incomprehen- 



306 



THE SORROWFUL " IF." 



sible shall tliere be all resolved, so that we shall clearly 
see how it; caine about that the very love of Jesus to 
us held him back from coming immediately to our 
relief : or rather we shall perceive that even when 
we thought him absent he was most truly present 
with us, arranging and overruling everything for our 
highest good and the glory of his name. He does not 
come to interpose against the death of our beloved ; 
neither does he recall our dead to our embrace, but in 
our case, as in that of the Bethany mourners, we shall 
discover that there was love in the delay, and we shall 
be glad that he acted as he did when we behold the 
grand result. Nor only in the case of such an afflic- 
tion as bereavement will that be the issue. We shall 
find that the same thing is true of all our tribula- 
tions, for " the trial of your faith, being much more 
precious than of gold thatperisheth, though it be tried 
with fire, shall be found unto praise and honor and 
glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ." " Rest in the 
Lord, therefore, and wait patiently for him," for the 
day is coming when you shall be constrained to say : 
" Because the Lord was with us our trials came upon 
us, and he brought us safely through them into his 
wealthy place." 

And now, dear friends, I have completed the course 
of thought which I had marked out for this discourse, 
and I leave it to make its own impression on your 
hearts. Some of you have lately been called to pass 
through deep affliction. Each winter, as it goes, takes 
with it some of those whose forms and faces were 
familiar in our place of assembly, so that now as I 
look across my audience, I miss the countenances of 
many who, years ago, were wont to worship with us 
here, and during the last few months the homes of not 



THE SORROWFUL " IF." 



307 



a few among us have been saddened with a desolation 
akin to that which fell upon the cottage of Bethany. 
To them especially I have spoken to-day. Take to 
yourselves the consolations in which this history is so 
rich, and be careful lest you fall before the temptation 
to which the sisters yielded. Be done with all un- 
believing "ifs;" do not deify secondary causes; but 
say with Job, " The Lord hath taken away," and 
then it will be easy to add, " Blessed be the name of 
the Lord," for he is perfect wisdom and perfect love, 
and ordereth all things well. And, remembering that 
those who have lived for Christ depart only to be with 
him, lift your thoughts to the place into which they 
have entered — so shall your hearts be comforted, and 
your memories of the past be transformed into hopes 
for the future. For you shall see them again in that 
glorious home into which neither sin, nor sorrow, nor 
pain, nor death shall enter. Here is a beautiful adapta- 
tion of my text, that brings out both the danger of 
murmuring and the joy of faith ; let me commend it to 
your attention, that you may be at once warned and 
cheered : 

We sadly watch'd the close of all, 

Life balanced on a breath ; 
We saw upon his features fall 

The awful shade of death. 
All dark and desolate we were ; 

And murmuring nature cried : 
*' Oh ! surely, Lord ! hadst thou been here 

Our brother had not died. " 

But when its glance the memory cast 

On all that grace had done, 
And thought of life's long warfare passed 

And endless victory won, 
Then faith prevailing wiped the tear, 

And looking upward, cried : 
" Oh ! Lord, thou surely hast been her© • 

Our brother has not died." 



308 



THE SORROWFUL "IF." 



And you who heretofore have been largely exempt from 
sorrow, think not that it will be always so with you, 
Trials will come. Tribulations will come. Bereave- 
ments will come on you as on others. Therefore, let 
the thoughts which I have this morning uttered sink 
into your hearts, that so you may be kept from mis- 
judging your Saviour in the hour of your calamity, and 
may be upborne through all by the consciousness that 
he is with you, and the assurance that by and by you 
shall be with him. May God add his blessing. Amen. 
May 6, 1883. 



THE HIDDEN SUPPORT OF LIFE. 



John iv. 32. But he said unto them, I have meat to eat that ye 
know not of. 

Weaby, hungry and athirst, Jesus sat beneath the 
glare of an Oriental noon on the ledge of Jacob's well. 
His disciples had left him all alone for a season while 
they went into the neighboring city to buy food, and 
on their return they were surprised to find that he 
was speaking with a woman who had come to draw 
water, and who, almost as soon as they appeared, left 
her pitcher behind her and hastened, like one who was 
on a special errand, into the town from which they 
had just come. And she was on a special errand, for 
after a conversation which had probed her heart to 
its depths and brought to light the secrets of her life, 
she had found the Messiah in the mysterious stranger 
and was off in eager joy to say to all her people, " Come 
and see a man that told me all things that ever I did : 
is not this the Christ?" But all that was at the 
moment unknown to the disciples, and so when they 
urged their Master to partake of the food which they 
had provided and he declined, saying : "I have meat 
to eat that ye know not of," they were puzzled and 
asked among themselves : " Hath any man brought 
him aught to eat ? " Their perplexity was natural in 
the circumstances, for they imagined that he had re- 
ferred to ordinary material food, but when he added, 
" My meat is to do the will of him that sent me and 
to finish his work," they began to understand that 



It 



310 THE HIDDEN SUPPOET OF LIFE. 

during their absence lie had been engaged in hi^ 
"Father's business," and that he was describing the 
inner satisfaction which he had enjoyed in its dis- 
charge. But when he went on to speak of their enter- 
ing into his labors, they recognized also, that in the 
unfolding of his own experience he was testifying to 
a fact which might be verified in theirs. It is in- 
deed true that no one else can affirm as unqualifiedly 
as he did, that the doing of the Father's will and the 
finishing of the Father's work is his meat ; but still 
all who have believed in him and have received his 
spirit, can so far forth at least adopt his words, and 
therefore I do not misuse them when I regard them 
as suggesting for our consideration the hidden support 
of life. 

Before entering on the exposition of that topic 
however, it may be well to set clearly before you the 
general principles which underlie the expression 
which the Lord has here employed. It is an affirma- 
tive way of enunciating the same truth which, in its 
negative form, he uttered when, in reply to Satan's 
suggestion that he should command stones to be made 
bread for the removal of his hunger, he said : " It 
is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by 
every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." 
Now putting these two sayings together, and having 
regard both to their undoubted significance and to 
the circumstances in which they were spoken, we get 
some valuable results. 

I. For one thing, they teach that, in the case of hu- 
man creatures at least, life is a higher thing than exist- 
ence. Man is a complex being, having a soul as well 
as a body. His soul allies him with God and the un- 
seen, while his body links him to the animal and the 



THE HIDDEN SUPPORT OF LIFE. 



311 



material. The meat by which the soul is supported 
is spiritual ; that by which the body is maintained is 
material. The soul, from the very nature of the case, 
is superior to the body — is indeed the tenant of the 
body ; and so the body is for the soul and not the 
soul for the body. The gratification of the body in 
its material support is simply animal existence ; but 
life for a man is the culture and development of his 
soul through the doing of the will of God. True, the 
body has its wants which must be cared for ; but the 
supply of these is only means to the attainment of a 
higher end, that end being the doing of the will of 
God by the soul. "When, however, the means are 
elevated into the end, and a man seeks the pampering 
of the body only, he has thereby abdicated his man- 
hood and sunk into a mere animal. The first question, 
therefore, which faces the youth when he awakes to 
moral consciousness and recognizes that he has a soul 
within him is this : " Am I content merely to exist ? 
or do I mean to live indeed ? " Or, to put it in other 
words : " Am I to be my body's ? or is my body to be 
mine? and mine for God? What shall be my aim 
henceforth ? Shall I exist simply to eat and drink ; 
or shall I eat and drink in order to live by glorifying 
and enjoying God?" That is the great hinge on 
which the quality of a man's career turns ; and ac- 
cording as he swings it to this side or to that, he will 
become a slave of appetite or a servant of God. Ah ! 
how often is the young man tempted into sensuality 
by the invitation of his companions : " Come, let us 
see life ! " But sensuality is not life for a man. Life 
for a man is something higher, nobler, more glorious 
by far, even "to do the will of him that sent us, and 
to finish his work." It is not, as the gourmand fancies, 
to enjoy the pleasures of the table ; not, as the drunk- 



312 



THE HIDDEN SUPPORT OF LIFE. 



ard madly sings, to drown care in the flowing bowl ; 
not as the sensualist declares, to give loose rein to the 
lowest passions of our nature. Ail these are but 
forms of animal enjoyment, and the man who makes 
these the ends he seeks is simply existing, and has 
sunk beneath the dignity of a rational and immortal 
being. He only can be said to live a man's proper 
life who, by faith in God and obedience to his word, is 
striving constantly to serve the Lord. 

II. But these words suggest to us, in the second 
place, that in the prosecution of life, as thus under- 
stood, we must lay our account with manifold priva- 
tions, difficulties and conflicts. For we have not now 
a perfectly harmonious environment. We do not 
begin, as Adam did, in a paradise of innocence. But 
we come into a world where sin is abounding, and we 
bring with us natures all too prone to listen to the 
tempter's blandishments ; so that the very first motions 
of real life within us often take the form of conflict, 
either with ourselves or with those influences by which 
we are surrounded. Sometimes we have the longinsrs 
of the flesh so strong upon us that w hen we " would 
do good evil is present with us ; " and the will, to use 
the words of another, may be " struck down by the 
lightning of passion, or may move creaking with the 
friction of temper, or may sink in the collapse of 
depression." * And even if all should be at peace 
within, we may have much to try us from without. 
The strain of labor may be severe, or the course which 
we feel impelled to take may estrange our friends 
from us and leave us in utter solitude, or the claims 
of interest may be so strong for the moment as almost 



* James Martineau, D.D. " Hours of Thought," 1st series, p. 141. 



THE HEDDEI7 SUPPORT OP LIFE. 



313 



to outweigh in our regard those of duty, or at least 
to make the sacrifice seem something terrible — or the 
sight of the apparent prosperity of those who are not 
burdened with conscience may tempt us to exclaim 
with the Psalmist : " Verily, I have cleansed my heart 
in vain," so that our feet may almost slip. Ah ! who 
is there among us that has begun to live indeed, and 
knows not experiences like these ? But let us not be 
discouraged. These are the evidences that we do 
live ; for if we had been content with simple existence 
we should have had no such conflicts. It is not the 
having of them that should distress us, but rather the 
being worsted by them, for the promise is not to him 
who has had no battle, but "to him that overcometh." 

III. But these words suggest to us, in the third 
place, that under such experiences the strength of 
the man comes from hidden support. He has meat to 
eat of which others know not. He could not sustain 
himself if he had not. If he deny himself present 
gratification he feeds upon the future food for which 
he has given up the fleeting joy. If he brave the con- 
demnation of the ungodly, he delights in the conscious- 
ness that he has the approval of his God. If he have 
to go without many of the worldly advantages which 
others possess, he has the satisfaction of having ac- 
complished much which they have never attempted. 
If he be left apparently " in the blank and solitude of 
things " to endure affliction or suffer persecution, he 
has a constant solace in the assurance that he is still 
on the side of God, and that ere long " He will bring 
forth his righteousness as the light and his judg- 
ment as the noonday." These are things which the 
world cannot give him and which the v/orld cannot 
take away ; and by these things, and such as these, 
14 



814 



THE HIDDEN SUPPORT OF LIFE. 



all those whose lives have benefited and bles.ied 
humanity have been sustained. This hidden meat is 
the food of heroes, and has always been the nourish- 
ment of those who have " resisted unto blood striving 
against sin." 

IV. But these words suggest to us, fourthly, that 
when a man has no such secret support his life loses 
all spiritual importance and becomes a mere groveling 
thing of animal enjoyment. The soul in such circum- 
stances is starved, and all true nobleness disappears 
from the character. The wretched one has put out 
his faith eyes, and his own passions have set him, 
Samson-like, to grind in ceaseless drudgery for their 
gratification. It is a terrible thing to think of, and 
yet, alas! how many there are in this great city of 
ours who, beginning on Delilah's lap, have ended in a 
slavery and degradation more horrible by far than 
that of the old Hebrew giant! When the hidden 
food that God in Christ supplies is despised, be sure 
that the noblest life is thenceforward unattainable ; 
the man is descending to the animal ; the life is 
degenerating into mere existence, and the soul is 
being sacrificed for the body. These principles are 
of immense importance. They are absolutely funda- 
mental, and they cannot be neglected without disas- 
trous consequences resulting from our imprudence. 
For these reasons I have felt constrained to put them 
thus in prominent and distinct relief before you, not 
without the hope that through their instrumentality 
the Divine Spirit may quicken some among you into 
life indeed. 

But now, leaving mere generalities, let me endeavor 
to particularize some of the forms under which the 
Christian receives this hidden support of life— some 



THE HIDDEN SUPPORT OP LIFE. 



315 



of the ways in which he has meat to eat which others 
know not of. 

And first, I remark that he has often such food in 
a "good conscience." I enter not now into any meta- 
physical analysis of the faculty of conscience. Let it 
suffice to say that it is that within us which gives us 
the distinction between right and wrong, along with 
the feeling of obligation to do the one and to refrain 
from doing the other. It deals in the words " ought " 
and " ought not." It lays down the law to the soul, 
and cannot be better described than it has been by 
Bishop Butler, as " that superior principle in every 
man which distinguishes between the internal prin- 
ciples of his heart as well as his external actions, 
which passes judgment upon himself and them ; pro- 
nounces determinately some actions to be in them- 
selves just, right, good ; others to be in themselves 
evil, wrong, unjust ; which, without being consulted, 
without being advised with, magisterially exerts itself 
and approves or condemns him the doer of them 
accordingly ; and which, if not forcibly stopped, nat- 
urally and always, of course, goes on to anticipate a 
higher and more effectual sentence, which shall here- 
after second and affirm its own." This is the law 
written in the heart, of which Paul makes mention ; 
and though depravity has in some degree corrupted 
it, yet when it is purified and rectified by the opera- 
tion on it of the Holy Spirit, through the belief of the 
truth as it is in Jesus, it may be regarded as being, in 
a very true sense, God's representative in the soul. 
Its approbation, therefore, being the reflex and echo 
of the approval of God, is a great source of support 
to a struggling and tried believer, even as its condem- 
nation must be always a cause of weakness and of 
pain. When one is accused he is not so much to be 



316 



THE HIDDEN SUPPOET OP LIFE. 



pitied if lie be accused falsely, as he would be if tlie 
accusation were true. In the one case, he knows that 
whatever men may say or do, God will vindicate him 
in the end. In the other, he is already condemned 
by himself, and that is only the sure foretaste of 
his condemnation by God. Thus conscience makes 
of a man either a hero or a coward — a hero if he has 
its unqualified indorsement, but a coward if he feels 
already its sharp upbraidings. See how this was 
proved by the contrast between Paul and Felix. By 
all ordinary laws the Apostle ought to have been 
daunted before the governor. He had little of power 
or pomp about him, but Felix had all the style and 
authority of a Roman magnate ; and besides, Paul 
was a prisoner at the bar, and Felix the judge upon 
the bench. Yet what do we see ? — the prisoner giving 
a charge on righteousness, temperance, and judgment, 
and the judge trembling as he listens. "Why ? Because 
the one could say : " Herein do I exercise myself to 
have a conscience void of offense toward God and 
toward man ; " and because the other was haunted by 
the remembrance of his unjust decisions, his rob- 
beries, his cruelties, and his impurities. Thus Paul 
had meat to eat of which Felix knew nothing, and in 
the strength of that food he grew into a greatness 
which we have never seen equaled since his day. 
In the same way we explain, to a very large extent 
at least, the robustness of each member of that " noble 
army of martyrs," to whom the world has owed so much, 
who " met the tyrant's brandished steel, the lion's 
gory mane," and gave up the existence of the body 
that they might maintain the life of the soul in the 
preservation of their allegiance to their Lord. A 
good conscience is a continual feast, and they who 
have that within themselves can do without the ban- 



THE HIDDEN SUPPORT OF LIFE. 



317 



quets of the world. I know, indeed, that in these 
days it has become fashionable to sneer at all this, 
and there are many who will say that they " cannot 
afford to keep a conscience." But be not ye among 
the number. Cannot afford to keep a conscience ! 
What is gold compared with the assurance that you 
have done that which God would have you do? and 
what will whole mines of wealth or whole burnt- 
offerings of human applause avail if, after all, you are 
despised by yourself, and have that within you which 
constantly upbraids you with meanness and corrup- 
tion ? O, it gives a manly erectness to you when you 
can hold up your head and say with Paul : " With me 
it is a small matter to be judged of by you or of man's 
judgment ; yea, I judge not mine own self ; there is 
one that judge th me, even God." A crust with the 
consciousness of unswerving loyalty to God is better 
far than affluence with remorse gnawing at the heart ; 
and he may well defy all human antagonism who is 
only sure of these three things — a good God, a good 
conscience, and a good cause — for then he has " meat 
to eat of which the world knows nothing." 

But a second form in which the Christian often en- 
joys this hidden support is that of a worthy ambition. 
If we are intent upon the attainment of some fixed 
purpose, then our steady contemplation of that will 
sustain us amid distractions and difficulties and trials 
which otherwise would have overmastered us. We 
see that exemplified even on the lower level of ordi- 
nary temporal pursuits. Every reader of Macaulay's 
Essays must remember how that fascinating writer 
describes the boy Warren Hastings lying, when just 
seven years old, on the banks of the rivulet that flows 
through his parental domain, and resolving that he 
would recover the estate which had belonged to his 



318 



THE HIDDEN SUPPORT OF LIFE. 



father, and then adds : " This purpose, formed in in- 
fancy and poverty, grew stronger as his intellect 
expanded and as his fortune rose. * * * "When under 
a tropical sun he ruled fifty millions of Asiatics, his 
hopes, amidst all the cares of war, finance and legisla- 
tion, still pointed to Daylesford." Yes, that was the 
secret meat by which he was sustained. And to take 
a more recent instance. As I was wandering with a 
friend, some summers ago, through a Highland glen 
in the island of Arran, he pointed out a rock to me, 
and said : " There's where Louis Napoleon used to 
sit when, during his exile, he was here as the guest of 
the Duke of Hamilton, and the story is told that, one 
day after he had been resting there in solitude for 
hours, another of the visitors at the castle came and 
said to him : * What are you thinking about so long 
and all alone ? ' and received for answer : ' I was plan- 
ning a system of sewerage which I mean to carry out 
in Paris when I become the ruler of France.' " That 
was his secret food, by the eating of which he kept up 
his heart in those days of darkness ; and though I am 
no great admirer of the man, I see through such an 
incident some glimmerings of greatness in him. Now 
a similar effect is produced by a worthy ambition in 
the heart of the Christian. Let him be but thoroughly 
resolved to make the world the better for his being in 
it; let him set his soul upon the attainment of some 
good, not for himself, but for his fellow men ; or, let 
him live for the bringing of multitudes to Christ, and 
then that purpose will enable him "to bear up and steer 
right onward," keeping a steady course in spite of the 
darkest night or wildest weather. It is written of the 
Lord himself, that "for the joy set before him" — and 
that was the joy of saving men — " he endured the cross, 
despising the shame." And we find precisely the same 



THE HIDDEN SUPPORT OF LIFE C 



319 



thing in the history before us, when the joy of saving 
this Samaritan woman, and the eager expectation of 
benefiting those who were coming to him at her invita- 
tion, made him forget for the time his hunger and his 
weariness. So it will be with us also in the measure 
in which we follow him. This is the secret of the 
strength of those who have given their lives to the 
missionary cause. They have discounted the future 
for the benefit of the present, and in their anticipation 
of the results which shall spring from their work in 
generations to come, they have that which sustains 
them in their labors now. They see the harvest al- 
ready in the handful of seed which they are preparing 
to scatter, and seeing that, they have new strength to 
sow. At the unveiling of the Livingstone statue, in 
the city of Edinburgh, the venerable Dr. Moffat, 
Livingstone's father-in-law, as reported in the news- 
papers of the day, spoke to this effect : " When Living- 
stone was led into the unknown regions of Africa, they 
all knew the dangers to which he was exposed, but 
nothing could influence him to desist. He had an 
Africa in view over which they had talked many 
times together, and in which he could see vessels 
sailing on the lakes, and spires rising and churches 
built. He never lost sight of that." And that was a 
part of his hidden food. If, therefore, you would have 
something within you that will uphold you amid diffi- 
culty and discouragement, get a benevolent ambition, 
resolve to do some Christian service for your genera- 
tion, set your heart on the righting of some wrong, or 
the removing of some ignorance, or the undoing of 
some burden for others, by the propagation of the 
gospel of Christ, and you will have therein meat to eat 
of which others know not. 

But akin to that which I have just described is the 



320 



THE HIDDEN SUPPORT OF LIFE. 



third form in which the Christian enjoys this hidden 
support, that, namely, of a strong faith in the unseen 
and in the future. This enables him to distinguish 
between things as they appear to men, and as they 
really are before the eye of God, and gives him an 
inward ideal toward which he is always striving, and 
the attainment of which by him will be heaven itself. 
Now where can we find a better illustration of this 
than that furnished by Moses, of whom it is said that 
" he endured as seeing him who is invisible," and 
again, that " he chose rather to suffer affliction with 
the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin 
for a season, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater 
riches than all the treasures of Egypt, because he had 
respect unto the recompense of the reward? " Through 
the veil which conceals the spirit realm from mortal 
sight his faith-eye saw the living throne of the eternal 
God ; and that for him neutralized ail the influences 
of earth, so that the compass of his conscience trembled 
sensitively yet steadily to Jehovah. In his light he 
saw clearly the relative position of earthly and heav- 
enly things, the infinite difference between the tem- 
poral and the eternal, and he reckoned that the light 
afiiictions which were but for a moment were not 
worthy to be compared with that " far more exceeding 
and eternal weight of glory." Beyond the boundary 
of earth and time he saw a glory and a greatness 
which dazzled into dimness the glittering pomp even 
of an Egyptian royalty, and the contemplation of the 
one gave him strength to sacrifice the other. Here 
again we see that the conduct of the believer is only 
an application to the relation between this life and 
that which is to come of the principles on which men 
act in seeking the honors and rewards of earth. The 
ideal with both dominates over the real ; the only 



THE HIDDEN SUPPORT OF LIFE. 



321 



difference is that with him the ideal is higher than 
with them. They labor for a corruptible crown, " but 
he for an incorruptible." What the student is doing 
for his scholarship, and the merchant for his wealth, 
and the statesman for his office, and the author for his 
fame, he is doing for his recompense of eternal reward. 
Each has his own secret food. Each is giving up a 
present advantage for a future good. Both alike are 
walking and working by faith ; but the Christian's 
faith takes in eternity. He hears a voice they cannot 
hear ; he sees a hand they cannot see. So he follows 
after in the sure confidence that in the end there shall 
be for him a crown of righteousness that fadeth not 
away. This assurance is the hidden food by which 
his soul is supported amid all the privations and 
afflictions of his earthly lot. 

But to mention only one other thought. I remark 
that the Christian enjoys this hidden support in the 
form of divine companionship. When Jesus was 
passing into Gethsemane he said to his followers : " Ye 
shall be scattered every man to his own, and shall 
leave me alone ; and yet I am not alone, because the 
Father is with me." And when Paul at his first 
answer was forsaken by all his friends he affirmed 
that " the Lord stood by him and strengthened him." 
So also when he and Silas were in prison at Philippi, 
with their backs smarting from the scourging to which 
they had been subjected, and their feet fast in the stocks, 
"they prayed and sang praises unto God." They 
had meat to eat of which their adversaries knew not, 
and by that they were supported when others would 
have fainted. Nor are these exceptional instances. 
The believer "walks with God ; " and in that fellowship 
has his sure support. He can say, in the words of the 



322 



THE HIDDEN SUPPORT OF LIFE. 



" I find him lifting up my head, 
He brings salvation near; 
His presence makes me free indeed, 
And he mil soon appear." 

God is to liim " a very present lielp in trouble ; " and by 
the words of his promises, by the suggestions of his 
Spirit, haply also by the ministrations of his angelic 
servants — unrecognized at the moment, yet full of 
encouragement — he gives cheer to his people in their 
despondency, and strength to them in their weakness. 
" The best of all," said the dying W esley, " is that 
God is with us." "Come," said Luther in his days of 
trial, " and let us sing the 46th Psalm — £ God is our 
refuge and our strength.' " There is no solace or 
support to be compared with that. To know that we 
are on God's side and that God is on our side, that is 
meat indeed, and there are experiences in which 
nothing else will avail to hold us up. As one has well 
said : " On the bed of pain, when thought and will 
swim feebly away and we are condensed into the 
poignant moments, when we long for the night, but 
when it comes the stars glide too slowly and the 
silence will not let us moan ; and we watch for the 
morning, but when it dawns the soft light mocks us 
with its sweetness and the birds with the blitheness 
of their song : in the vigils of anxiety when some life 
which is our all trembles in the scale, and we extort 
a thousand contradictory oracles from the flush upon 
the features or the cloud upon the eye ; under the 
sting of calumny when things we most abhor are told 
of us, and averted faces and sarcastic words show that 
the lie has proved too strong and the love of friends 
too weak ; in the countless vicissitudes of broken 
fortunes and shattered health and disappointed hopes ; 
all must look like ruin if we have no stay beyond the 



THE HIDDEN SUPPORT OF LIFE. 323 

impression of the hour." * But if then there break in 
upon our perplexity a voice saying unto us : " Fear 
not, for I am with thee ; be not dismayed, for I am thy 
God ; I will help thee, yea I will strengthen thee, yea 
I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteous- 
ness." " Lo I am with you always even unto the end 
of the world. I will never leave thee, no, no, I will 
never forsake thee ; " immediately there is a calm. 
" In loneliness we have still an ever-living communion. 
Deserted by the voices of affection, we are with him 
who attuned their sweetness and will console their 
loss ; and dying we but pass to the very source and 
home of life." 

Nor only for such great emergencies is this com- 
panionship a secret fountain of support. It is as 
valuable for the common weariness of a common 
day, and under the dull monotony of that constant 
routine whose 

" Sameness cbubles cares, 
While one unbroken chain of work 
The flagging temper wears." 

For if, exhausted by such labors, we can get "the un= 
expanded thought of the eternal God" to lie closer 
to our hearts, we shall find that by itself "that 
thought is bliss," and the assurance " I will not fail 
thee nor forsake thee " will send us on our way re- 
joicing so that we shall ply 

" Our daily task with busier feet 
Because our secret souls a holy strain repeat. " 

Happy, O thrice happy ! they who thus have meat to 
eat of which the world kno~~s not. 

And now, in conclusion, tell me what the hidden 

* James Martineau, D.D. "Hours of Thought," first series, as 
before, pp. 151, 152. 



324 



THE HIDDEN SUPPORT OF LIFE. 



support of your life is, and I will tell you whether 
you are a Christian indeed. To what or to whom do 
you resort in times of weakness, depression and spir- 
itual exhaustion? When your heart is overwhelmed, 
to what or to whom do you go for strength ? To the 
stimulants of the world, whether in the shape of its 
beverages, or its amusements, or its pleasures, or its 
business? or to God in Christ? To the rock that 
is higher than you ? or to some of those that are be- 
neath you ? to Christ or to the world ? The answer 
will infallibly reveal whether you are or are not 
the followers of him who here did say, " I have 
meat to eat that ye know not of." Shrink not, I 
beseech you, from applying the test, and if you find 
that you are none of his, may the truths which have 
now been set before you lead you to repair at once to 
him who alone can say with truth to a human soul, 
" My grace is sufficient for thee, my strength is made 
perfect in weakness.'* 
Feb. 11, 1883. 



THE RECTIFYING INFLUENCE OF THE 
SANCTUARY. 

Psalm lxxiii. 16, 17. When I thought to know this, it was too 
painful for me, until I went into the sanctuary of God ; then undcr- 
s tood I their end. 

There lias been some little difference of opinion 
among expositors as to the precise reference of the 
word here translated "sanctuary." Literally, it 
means " the holies " of God ; and so it may be taken 
either as the holy things or the holy places of God. 
A few would understand it in the first sense as desig- 
nating " the righteous plans of God's government/' or 
" the secret grounds of his dealings with men; " while 
others would take it, in the second sense, as denoting 
" the eternity where God dwells as in a holy place." 
But to me it seems self-evident that by " going into 
the sanctuary of God," in this seventeenth verse, the 
writer describes the same exercise which in the 
twenty-eighth verse he has called " a drawing near 
to God ; " and so, in the mouth of one belonging to 
the old dispensation, the primary reference of the 
term must be to the temple, which was the earthly 
residence of God and the place where he communed 
with his people. Thus understood, the main drift and 
teaching of the psalm, as a whole, is that in approach- 
ing God through the recognized channels of access 
unto him, and in appropriating him to himself, Asaph 
found the antidote which neutralized the poison of 
the insidious temptation by which he had been almost 
destroyed. 



326 THE RECTIFYING INFLUENCE OF THE SANCTUARY. 

What that temptation was has been most graphic- 
ally described by himself. He had been greatly 
disturbed by the anomalies which were continually 
occurring in the world around him. He had seen 
the wicked so often prosperous and the righteous 
so often in distress that he was almost ready to con- 
clude that God was unrighteous, and that it made no 
matter how a man lived ; or rather, perhaps, that it 
would be better for him to become unscrupulous too. 
But when he entered into the sanctuary and took in all 
the revelation made there through sacrifice and sym- 
bol, he was enabled so to grasp anew the truth that 
God is righteous, and so to appropriate the God of the 
mercy seat as his own God as to find there the com- 
pensation for all his privations and the solvent for all 
his perplexities. For thus he sings : " Nevertheless 
I am continually with thee. Whom have I in heaven 
but thee ? and there is none upon earth that I desire 
besides thee." As if he had said : " Whatever else T 
may be without, yet I have thee for the strength of 
my heart and my portion forever ; and having that, I 
have infinitely more than wicked men possess, even in 
their highest prosperity, so that I am delivered from 
all envy of them and lifted out of all distrust of 
thee." 

Under the New Testament dispensation, the true 
antitype of the temple is the Lord Jesus Christ, in 
whom the real Shekinah dwells, for he is God mani- 
fest in the flesh ; so that the right gospel use of such 
a text as this would be to show that when by faith 
we enter into the Lord Jesus Christ, we have the true 
corrective influence, by which we are enabled to rec- 
tify the false judgments of the world and to preserve 
our faith in God, amid all the perplexities that sug- 
gest themselves when we look at the course of things 



THE RECTIFYING INFLUENCE OF THE SANCTUARY. 327 

upon the earth. But as, in the sanctuary commonly 
so-called among us, the sincere worshiper seeks thus 
believingly to enter in to Christ, we may, without 
any hesitation, apply the words of the psalmist here 
to that ; and in a day when so many criticisms are 
made upon public worship, it may be useful to set 
distinctly before you what I may call the rectifying 
influence of the sanctuary on those who regularly and 
devoutly enter it on the first day of the week. Of 
course I must take for granted that the worship of 
the sanctuary is such as to bring us near to God. I 
do not enter now on the discussion of those things 
which are best adapted to secure that end. I must 
postulate that the hymns of praise which are sung are 
such as carry up the tribute of our hearts to God ; 
that the prayers which are offered are such as lead us 
into the very secret place of the Almighty, and that 
the discourses delivered are such as clearly explain 
and cogently enforce the word of God — in short, that 
the services are such as to bring us from first to last 
face to face with God, as he has revealed himself to 
us through the written word and through the living 
Christ. Now, my assertion is that in the sanctuary, 
thus understood, there is a rectifying influence which 
corrects the errors into which, from his close and con- 
stant intercourse with worldly men, the Christian is 
apt to fall. That this is true will appear if you look 
at the matter from one or two different points of 
view : 

I. Take it, first, as it bears upon the standards of 
judgment commonly in use among men. Nothing is 
clearer than that the maxims of the Lord Jesus are 
in almost all respects opposed to those that are most 
popular in the world. Now, when a man accepts 



328 THE RECTIFYING INFLUENCE OF THE SANCTUARY. 



Mm as his Redeemer, Lawgiver, and King, he declares 
that he is determined to be ruled in all respects by 
the principles of Christ. No doubt, too, when he 
makes that declaration he is sincere. But in his 
daily business he is thrown continually among those 
y/ho consider that the laws of his Lord are fanatical, 
or impracticable, or ridiculous, and who tell him that 
if he is determined to act upon them, he may as 
well make up his mind to be defeated in the race 
of competition. More than that, his observation con- 
vinces him that as things now are their assertion is 
largely true ; and so, as the days go on, he is in 
danger of being lowered to their level. But the Sab- 
bath comes, and he enters into the sanctuary, where 
he is confronted with God, and then and thereby all 
the webs of sophistry that his fellow men have spun 
are swept away as easily as one brushes from his path 
the gossamer of the morning. Did you ever see a 
vessel swung for the purpose of having her compass 
adjusted ? The process, as carried on in the river 
Thames in England, is something like this. The ship 
is moved in the bight at Greenhithe, and by means 
of warps attached to certain buoys she is turned 
with her head toward various points one after 
another. The bearing of the compass on board, in- 
fluenced as that is by the attraction of the iron of 
which she is composed, or which she carries, is ac- 
curately noted by some one appointed for the pur- 
pose, and the true bearing is signaled to him by 
another observer on shore, who has a compass out of 
reach of all local disturbance. The error in each 
position is ascertained, and the necessary corrections 
are made. New, it is just similar with Christ and 
the devout worshiper in the sanctuary. During the 
week the consciences even of the best among us have 



THE RECTIFYING INFLUENCE OF THE SANCTUARY. C29 

been more or less affected by things immediately 
around us, so that we are in danger of making serious 
mistakes in our life voyage. But here Christ comes 
to us and gives us our " true bearings," as they are 
in the standard of his word, undisturbed by any 
earthly or metallic influences, and so the needful rec- 
tifications may be made by us and we may start out 
afresh. 

But, to take one or two particular illustrations* let us 
look at the judgment which Christ gives of wealth, and 
see how much there is in that to rectify the current 
opinion. With many — may I not say with most — 
wealth is the supreme good. They estimate every- 
thing by the money scale. They subordinate every- 
thing to the acquisition of a fortune. They live and 
move and have their being mainly to get riches, and 
even when that is not the case, yet there is in the air 
around them such a deference to money, altogether 
irrespective of the means by which it has been ac- 
quired, that, almost insensibly to themselves, they 
become infected with the same spirit. Now see what 
Christ's standard says on this subject. He does not 
allege that wealth is a thing to be despised, but he 
dethrones it from its position of supremacy to one of 
inferior importance. Ee shows that it is not the great 
end to be sought, but at the best only a means which 
may be made conducive to the furtherance of that end. 
He declares most emphatically that " a man's life con- 
sisteth not in the abundance of the things which he 
possesseth," but in those inner treasures which the 
world can neither give nor take away. Hear these 
words : " The ground of a certain rich man brought 
forth plentifully, and he thought within himself, say- 
ing, * What shall I do because I have no room where to 
bestow my fruits ? ' and he said, * This will I do : I 



330 THE EECTIFYING INFLUENCE OF THE SANCTUAEY. 

will pull down my barns and build greater, and there 
will I bestow my fruits and my goods, and I will say 
to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for 
many years ; take thine ease, eat, drink and be 
merry.' " Now mark what was wrong in all that. 
The evil was not that he had so much, but that he 
had nothing else. His error was, not that he had well 
considered what he should do with his goods, but that 
he had never considered what he should do with him- 
self. In the filling of his barns he had starved his 
spiritual nature, and when death deprived him of his 
earthly fruits he discovered that he had nothing left. 
Hence God said to him : " Thou fool ! this night thy 
soul shall be required of thee, then whose shall those 
things be which thou hast provided ? So," adds the 
Saviour, "is he that layeth up treasure for himself, 
and is not rich toward God." There it is — to be rich 
toward God — that is the true aim of life. To have a 
heart at peace with God, a soul renewed by the Spirit 
of God, a life devoted to the service of God ; that is to 
be rich indeed. With that a man will take care how 
he seeks earthly wealth, and will know how best to 
spend it for the glory of God and the service of his 
generation ; without that, no matter how much of this 
world's goods he may possess, he has missed the great 
purpose of his being. My hearer, what does your 
conscience say to that ? Look in and see, and if it has 
been deflected by the metallic influences round you 
during the week, be sure that you correct it now, lest, 
like the fool in the parable, you should make ship- 
wreck at the last. 

But, as another illustration, look at the Saviour's 
standard of greatness. Men generally connect that 
with power. That which raises one above his fellows 
and gives him some advantage over them for his own 



THE RECTIFYING INFLUENCE OF THE SANCTUARY. 331 

honor or aggrandizement, is, in the estimation of the 
world, greatness. It is a thing of personal pre- 
eminence, making others minister to its comfort or 
state ; and so it comes to be sought by the individual 
for his own sake, and not for that of others. But 
when we get near to Christ in the sanctuary, we dis- 
cover that his estimate is entirely different. You 
remember what he said to James and John when, 
through their mother, they presented the request that 
they might sit, one on his right hand and the other 
on his left hand, in his glory. He did not affirm that 
it was wrong to seek after greatness. He knew the 
nature which God had given to men too well to do 
anything like that. But, as in the case of wealth, we 
have just seen that he gave a new definition to riches, 
and said, "Seek to acquire such treasure as will make 
you rich toward God," so here he gave a new direction 
to ambition by making greatness consist in service. 
"Ye know," said he, " that they which are accounted 
to rule over the Gentiles exercise lordship over 
them, and their great ones exercise authority upon 
them, but so shall it not be among you ; but whoso- 
ever will be great among you shall be your minister, 
and whosoever of you will be the chief est shall be 
servant of all. For even the Son of Man came not to 
be ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life 
a ransom for many." Thus to those who are filled 
with the love of greatness, the Lord preaches the 
greatness of love, and to those who are enamored of the 
service which authority commands he reveals the in- 
fluence which service ultimately secures ; while, with 
a sublime egotism only to be explained by his con- 
sciousness of deity, he holds himself up as the bright- 
est exemplification of his own principle. Now, here 
again, what does our conscience say ? Each of us is 



332 THE RECTIFYING INFLUENCE OF THE SANCTUARY. 

striving after some greatness ; so much is natural ; bnt 
is the greatness after which we are striving of this 
self-sacrificing sort ? or is it selfish and self-seeking ? 
Search and see, and if you have lowered your standard 
before the world's opinion, see that you rectify the 
mistake here and now. It is one great purpose of the 
sanctuary service to secure such a result. Here is the 
standard. The highest of all is the servant of the 
lowest of all, and the test of greatness in a man, ac- 
cording to the estimate of Christ, is not, how much 
does he know ? or how much does he possess ? or what 
office does he hold ? or what power does he wield ? 
but what service has he rendered to his generation by 
the will of God ? Ah, if human competition were to 
be as eager for the prize in that as it is for pre- 
eminence in other matters, how much better would it 
be for the world at large, and for the prize-takers 
themselves ! 

But, to mention only one thing more under this head : 
take the matter of success, and see how Christ, in the 
sanctuary, rectifies the views of men regarding that. 
When we speak of success we are prone to think of it 
as a merely outward thing. The successful merchant 
is one who has built up a large business and acquired 
a fortune. The successful author is one who has ob- 
tained the ear of the public so that his works are cir- 
culated in thousands, and he becomes honored and 
wealthy as the result. The successful statesman is 
one who comes to be the recognized leader of his party 
and is everywhere acknowledged as its ablest man. 
And so on in every other department. To such an 
extent is this true that we have books on " Self Help " 
and "How to Succeed," and the like, detailing the 
steps by which some have risen from the very lowest 
round of the ladder to the very highest. And I do not 
wish to depreciate such works; they have a value of 



THE KECTIEYING INFLUENCE OF THE SANCTUAKY. 333 

their own in their own place ; but the success which 
they depict is not the true success in life, as Christ 
has denned success. For tried by such a standard 
his own life must be pronounced a failure, and we all 
know that it was anything but that. Success, in his 
view is in character, in the drinking of the cup which 
he drank of, and in the being baptized with the bap- 
tism wherewith he was baptized ; and one may attain 
that while yet, in a worldly point of view, he may be 
so poor as to have nowhere to lay his head. Show me 
the man, therefore, who, as he has tried to mount the 
ladder of which I have been speaking, has been ever- 
more beat back and beat down — the man whose life 
has been apparently one long struggle with difficulties, 
but who, in spite of all, has become only the sweeter 
and the purer in the process — who has kept all his 
tenderness in disposition toward his fellows, because 
he has retained his faith in God — who has learned in 
and through and by means of all his struggles to hold 
more freely by God's hand and cling more closely to 
Christ's cross, and walk more in accordance with 
Christ's example — and I tell you that man's life has 
been a success, even though there has been no external 
accumulation of property. There is the success of the 
unsuccessful ; and I would we could have nowadays a 
little more of that ; for character is nobler than any 
outward thing — yea, is the only thing that will remain 
when we shall stand naked and open before the eyes 
of Him with whom we have to do. Here again, then, 
let us look in and ask ourselves what that is which we 
account success ; and if we have been adopting the 
worldly ideal, let us unlearn our mistake and accept 
the corrective which the sanctuary supplies in Christ. 
It was well said by Dr. Mark Hopkins, at the funeral 
of one of our noblest philanthropists some weeks ago, 
that what we most of all need in these days is " the rec- 



334 THE RECTIFYING INFLUENCE OF THE SANCTUARY. 

tification of our standards." Let us therefore to-day 
receive the spirit of Christ into our hearts, that we 
may judge according to his estimates ; for if the stand- 
ards be wrong, everything must be wrong, according to 
that saying of his own, " The light of the body is the 
eye ; if, therefore, thine eye be single, thy whole body 
shall be full of light ; but if thine eye be evil, thy whole 
body shall be full of darkness. If, therefore, the light 
that is in thee be darkness, how great is that dark- 
ness ? " Divine Illuminator, open our eyes, that " in 
thy light we may see light clearly ! " 

II. But proceeding now to another department of 
the subject, let us look at the rectifying influence of 
the sanctuary on what I may call the perspective of 
life. Standing close up to our work, the thing which 
we are doing at the moment is apt to grow into undue 
importance in our minds, to the inevitable neglect of 
other and greater matters. The painter needs to re- 
tire now and then from his easel in order that he may 
not exaggerate some objects and diminish others, but 
may put each in its proper proportion ; and so in the 
sanctuary, as we draw near to God in Christ we learn 
to give its relative value to each province of our lives 
and to keep each in its own place. The Sabbath is a 
weekly day of review ; and as we meet Christ in the 
sanctuary, everything in our conduct is contemplated 
in its relation to him. We thus discover whether or 
not we have been allowing things material to exclude 
from our thoughts things spiritual, or have been let- 
ting the means take the place which belongs only to 
the end. Perhaps the devotional has unduly prepon- 
derated over the active ; or, what is much more likely, 
the pressure of active duties has crushed contempla- 
tion and devotion into a corner, and while we have been 



THE RECTIFYING INFLUENCE OF THE SANCTUARY. 335 

busy here and there about concerns which might have 
been postponed without detriment, the opportunity 
for fellowship with Christ in the closet has irrevocably 
gone. The ephemeral pamphlet has, it may be, over- 
laid for us the enduring word of God, or we have given 
to society and amusement hours which ought to have 
been sacred to duty or filled with service. But now 
as we sit here in the presence of Christ, and feel how 
little we have to bring to him out of the bygone week, 
we are ashamed. We see how much we ought to have 
done and might have done, which yet has been entirely 
neglected ; and the experience of the past thus becomes 
a warning for the future, for the failures of last week 
are set up as the beacons wherewith we mark the chan- 
nel of the next, and we set out from the church porch 
anew with the determination to keep closer to our ideal 
than ever before. Has it not been so with us very fre- 
quently in the past ? Do we not feel that it is so with us 
now ? Even with the Sabbath and the sanctuary our 
lives are poor trailing things enough, but how much 
more so would they be if we had not weekly the recti- 
fying influence of which I speak ! We shall fail again, 
no doubt, this week as we did the last, but we shall 
not fall quite so low as before, and the next Lord's day 
will lift us up anew ; and so, week by week, we shall go 
on rising by slow degrees into the measure of the stat- 
ure of the perfect man in Christ Jesus. Mark well, 
therefore, the things on which you cannot look with 
complacency here in the sanctuary, that you may avoid 
them in the future ; and if you have been giving un- 
due predominance to any matter, let the revelation 
of that fact administer its own corrective to your 
heart. 

III. But, narrowing in to a conclusion now, let me 



336 THE RECTIFYING INFLUENCE OF THE SANCTUARY. 

note finally the rectifying influence of the sanctuary on 
the estimate which we form of the relative importance 
of things present and things to come. When we draw 
near to Christ here, we recognize him as the risen and 
ascended Lord who has brought life and immortality 
to light, and wdio has gone into another mansion of 
the Father's house to prepare a place for his peojole. 
In this way we bring the motives of eternity to bear 
upon the duties of time, and call in the glories of 
heaven to sustain and support us under the afflictions 
of earth. In the toil and trouble of daily life we are 
too apt to forget the issues which hang upon our ex- 
istence here. I do not think that we Christians dwell 
as much on heaven in our meditations as we ought to 
do. It is not that, like Bunyan's man with the muck- 
rake, we are so much occupied in gathering together the 
refuse of earth that we do not see the glorious crown 
that is above us ; but that we are so engrossed with 
the present duty, or the present conflict, or the present 
suffering, that we forget to look before us into the 
better land. "We desire to be true to Christ, and yet 
so occupied are we with the effort that we neglect to 
think of the reward that is in store for us, and thus 
deprive ourselves of much comfort and inspiration 
which we might otherwise have enjoyed. But in the 
sanctuary, when we get near to Christ, we have heaven 
also brought nigh to us, and as we catch a glimpse of 
its glories, our afflictions dwindle into insignificance, 
while we are fired by the joy that is set before us to 
make more strenuous efforts to overcome the evil that 
is in us, and to endure the hardships that may come 
upon us. Thus Paul says, " If so be that we suffer 
with him that we may be also glorified together, for 
I reckon that the sufferings of this present time not are 
worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be re- 



THE RECTIFYING INFLUENCE OF THE SANCTUARY. 837 

vealed in us ;" and again : " Our light affliction, which 
is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more ex- 
ceeding and eternal weight of glory ; while we look 
not at the things which are seen, but at the things 
which are not seen ; for the things which are seen are 
temporal, but the things which are not seen are eter- 
nal." It was said by a great British statesman on one 
occasion that " he brought in the new world to restore 
the balance of the old," and in the same way in the 
sanctuary the Lord Jesus reconciles us to the present 
by the revelation of the future. Are we weary and 
heavy laden, suffering under long continued trials, or 
pressed by grievous burdens, then he bids us look 
forward and upward to the inheritance " that is incor- 
ruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away," where 
" there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor 
crying, neither shall there be any more pain ; " and he 
assures us that in a little while we shall be there. 
Are we wounded in the constant conflict with self, and 
with the world ? and do we cry out for relief ? Is the 
language of our hearts that of the aged believer who 
exclaimed, " Am I never to be done with this warfare ? 
Is there to be no victory — no rest ? " Then he lets us 
see the vision by which he sustained the spirit of the 
early Christians amid their sorest persecutions, even 
that of "the white-robed throng before the throne," 
and as we gaze with rapture on the sight he says : 
"These are they which came out of great tribula- 
tion, and have washed their robes and made them 
white in the blood of the lamb. They shall hunger no 
more, neither thirst any more ; neither shall the sun 
light on them, nor any heat. For the lamb which is in 
the midst of the throne shall feed them and shall lead 
them unto living fountains of waters ; and God shall 
wipe away all tears from their eyes." So he encourages 
15 



338 THE RECTIFYING INFLUENCE OF THE SANCTUARY. 



us to be faithful even unto the death, and gives us 
assurance of ultimate and unending triumph, and we 
go back again to renew the battle of life with eager- 
ness and enthusiasm, feeling that " it has been good 
for us to draw near to God." 

Thus have I sought to set before you as briefly and 
suggestively as possible the rectifying influence of the 
sanctuary when we seek sincerely to approach Jesus 
in it. And if all that I have said be true, then two 
things are thereby most easily accounted for. First, 
we understand at once how it comes that the true 
Christian " loves the habitation of God's house." It 
meets his need. It rests him when he is weary ; it 
comforts him when he is sorrowful ; it cheers him 
when he is desponding ; it reinvigorates him when he 
is faint, and in the hour of his gladness it sanctifies and 
elevates his joy. His week to him is robbed of its 
brightest portion when he has not been able to begin 
it in the house of God. Something has been lacking 
to him all through when he has missed the sanctuary. 
He has been conscious of less spring and elasticity in 
his walk because he has been deprived of what one 
called " the weekly tonic " of the public services on the 
Lord's day. It is not the ritual, it is not the acces- 
sories of music and fellowship with earthly friends, 
that so invigorates him, but it is the drawing near to 
God, the having of his spirit reminted by the Holy 
Ghost, and the having of his conscience rectified by 
him who is its only Lord. This lifts him up and sends 
him on with new fervor and enthusiasm ; and he 
leaves the porch of the sanctuary after such a time of 
reinvigoration, saying, " If this be not heaven it is the 
way to it. Blessed are they that dwell in thy house ; 
they will be still praising thee." My brethren, do I 
exaggerate here ? or is it not rather the case that 



THE BECTIFYING INFLUENCE OF THE SANCTUAKY. 339 

you are ready to corroborate and confirm my 
words ? 

But if this be all true, then we come to understand 
in the second place how it is that so many dislike 
the sanctuary. Much attention has been recently 
directed to the subject of church attendance, and 
only a week or two ago I was asked to write a 
contribution to a symposium in a popular review 
on the question why the people do not go to church. 
I made answer at once that the pressing duties 
of my daily life would not allow me to give any 
time to the preparation of such an article ; and when, 
on reading the paper which I was expected to criti- 
cise, I found that it was an indictment of ministers for 
grievous mistakes in their manner of preaching, and 
was signed by one who called himself vauntingly a 
" non-church -goer," I was confirmed in the wisdom 
of my resolution ; for if a man does not go to church, 
what does he know of that which goes on in church, 
and of how much worth is his criticism on it? But, 
indeed, there is no mystery in the case. The church, 
in so far as it is the ordinance of Christ, exists for the 
rectification of the world's standards, and, naturally, 
the men of the world do not like it. They must come 
to Christ first, and then there will be no difficulty 
about the sanctuary ; but until they submit themselves 
to him they cannot but be dissatisfied with it. Suppose 
a man whose great object in life is to amass a fortune 
should come into the house of God. He is there con- 
fronted with the principle laid down by the Saviour, 
that " a man's life doth not consist in the abundance of 
the things which he possesseth," and therefore one or 
other of two things must follow ; either he accepts the 
maxim of the Lord, and consents to reconstruct his 
life in accordance with it ; or he rejects it, and goes 



340 THE RECTIFYING INFLUENCE OF THE SANCTUARY. 

away railing at the gospel and its ministers. In like 
manner, if one who is bent on acquiring such greatness 
as shall enable him to command the services of others 
is confronted with the doctrine that to be the greatest 
of all one must be the servant of all, we cannot won- 
der that he rebels, and counts the sanctuary a weari- 
ness. Unless he is prepared to accept Christ as his 
redeemer and guide, he can do no otherwise. " The 
natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of 
God, neither can he know them, because they are spir- 
itually discerned." The critic may exclaim against 
that as he pleases. He may call it fanaticism or mys- 
ticism, and may characterize it as ridiculous, but it is 
none the less true, and it contains in itself the explana- 
tion of the whole matter. Unless, therefore, we con- 
sent to alter the fundamental principles of the gospel 
to suit the world's fancy we must be content to hear 
such fault-finding to the end. But we dare not think 
of any such treason to the Lord, whose messengers we 
are ; and so, whether we speak to admiring crowds or 
not, we must continue to expose the falseness of the 
world's standard, and to show how that can be cor- 
rected in Christ alone. Whether men hear, therefore, 
or whether they will forbear, this is our determina- 
tion ; and though the self-styled " leaders " of the pres- 
ent generation may sneer at us for our lack of appre- 
ciation of their culture, and for our failure to comply 
with their demands, we know that a day is coming 
when our vindication shall be complete. 
April 15, 1883. 



THE RESPONSIBILITIES OF LIFE 



Romans xiv. 7. For none of us liveth to himself. 

These words may be regarded by us in three differ- 
ent lights, each of which will be found to bring out 
vividly before us some important practical truth ; and 
as the illustration and enforcement of these will 
require all the time at my disposal, I shall proceed at 
once, without any formal introduction, to the work 
which I have taken in hand. 

I. Let us look at the text then, in the first place, as 
it is interpreted for us by the section of the Epistle 
to the Romans in which it is found. That section is 
devoted to the elucidation of the principles by which 
the early Christians were to be guided as to their 
observance or non-observance of particular festival 
days, and as to their abstinence or non-abstinence 
from certain kinds of meats and drinks. To under- 
stand the matter fully we must have a clear percep- 
tion of the difficulty with which the Apostle was 
seeking to deal. In those times, living as they were 
in the midst of paganism, the Gentile Christians were 
frequently invited to feasts at which meat was served 
which had been offered to an idol. Some partook of 
it without any hesitation, believing as Paul himself 
did, that " an idol was nothing in the world," and that 
nothing was " unclean of itself." Others having less 
enlightened and more scrupulous consciences refused 
to touch it, believing that if they did eat it they 



342 



THE RESPONSIBILITIES OF LIFE. 



would be guilty of countenancing idolatry. The 
Jewish converts, again, were divided on the question 
of the observance of their national feasts. Some of 
them maintained their old habits in the matter of 
these Mosaic appointments, and others contented 
themselves with the simple keeping of the Lord's day. 
All of them relied upon the sacrifice of Christ for 
justification, and therefore are to be carefully distin- 
guished from those against whom the Epistle to the 
Galatians was written, and who insisted on circum- 
cision as essential to salvation. ~No vital principle in 
this instance was at stake. The error of the scrupu- 
lous was that of asceticism and not that of legalism ; 
and so the Apostle here counsels mutual forbearance. 
He condemns everything like intolerance and recrimi- 
nation. Those who had attained to such breadth of 
view that they felt no difficulty about eating anything 
that was set before them, were not to arrogate to 
themselves superiority over those who felt no such 
liberty ; and on the other hand, those whose con- 
sciences would not allow them to partake of every sort 
of food were not to condemn such as had no scruples 
on the matter. The Jewish believer who kept all the 
festivals of his nation was not to look upon himself as 
better than he who observed only the Christian 
festival of the first day of the week ; and neither were 
they whose strength of mind had raised them above 
such things to depise those who still considered that 
they were important. There was to be an agreement 
between them to differ in love ; and if in any case the 
exercise of his undoubted liberty by one should 
seriously imperil the spiritual welfare of another by 
leading him to commit sin, then that liberty was to 
be cheerfully sacrificed in order that a brother should 
not be destroyed, for " the kingdom of God " was not 



THE RESPONSIBILITIES OF LIFE. 



343 



a thing of " meats and drinks," but of " righteousness 
and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost." 

Now the ground on which these injunctions were 
based was, that each believer — if he were a believer 
at all— was living, not unto himself, but unto Christ. 
" None of us" says the Apostle, "liveth unto himself." 
However it may be with others, none of us Christians 
liveth unto himself. Each of us has accepted Christ 
as his Eedeemer and Lord and is seeking in all things 
to serve him ; so if one eateth, he eateth unto the 
Lord ; and if another eateth not, he eateth not unto 
the Lord. Each of us follows Christ as his Master ; 
therefore, in all such things we must not judge each 
other, but rather judge that " no man put a stumbling 
block or an occasion to fall in his brother's way." 
One man is not to be condemned by another for that 
which he does in the exercise of conscientious Chris- 
tian liberty ; and yet, liberty to be Christian must be 
conditioned by love, so that we ought to forego even 
that which we feel free to engage in, if our indulgence 
in it should be the means of a brother's falling into 
sin. Thus the principle here enforced is precisely 
the same as that laid down by the Apostle in his 
Epistle to the Corinthians when he says : " All things 
are lawful for me ; but all things are not expedient." 
Because we are seeking to live to Christ, there is, in 
reference to all matters indifferent, perfect liberty to 
the individual conscience, and no one has a right to 
judge or set at naught another for doing that of which 
he is " fully persuaded in his own mind," and which he 
is seeking to do " as unto the Lord." Each is respon- 
sible not to his fellows but unto the Lord ; and while 
we may try to enlighten the consciense of another and 
bring him to see precisely as we do, we must not subject 
him to ridicule, or insult, or reproach, or hold him up 



344 THE EESPONSIBILITIES OF LIFE. 

in any measure to contempt, for doing that which he 
believes to be right. " To his own master he standeth 
or falleth." Conscience is the inner sanctuary of the 
human temple, and into that may enter only the Great 
High Priest who has made atonement for the world's 
guilt, and who alone " can purge it from dead works 
to serve the living God." It behooves us, therefore, to 
keep every unhallowed intruder out of that sacred 
domain, to stand up for our liberty in things indiffer- 
ent, and so long as we maintain loyalty to Christ in 
his revealed word, to insist that no man shall judge us 
in respect to those matters of custom or conformity 
which are not in themselves sinful, and in regard to 
which we take that course which seems to us to be 
most honoring to the Lord we love. Only let us see to 
it that we are taking it for the Lord's sake and not 
simply and solely for our own gratification. That is 
the one side of the subject. 

But there is another which is equally important ; 
for the liberty being maintained, the question of love 
then comes into operation. If I live to Christ and 
not to self, then I live also to Christians, for they are 
one with him. I cannot be true to him if I am incon- 
siderate of them. Therefore, though I may, nay, must 
assert my liberty, yet, if my exercise of that liberty 
should seriously wound my brother's heart, I shall 
be acting uncharitably if I insist on carrying it out. 
" I know and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus," says 
Paul, " that there is nothing unclean of itself, but if 
thy brother be grieved with thy meat, now walkest 
thou not charitably. Destroy not him with thy meat 
for whom Christ died." Kay, even more strongly, if 
thy brother is led into sin through the exercise of thy 
liberty, if he thereby stumbleth, or is made weak, 
or is offended — not in the sense of being displeased, 



THE RESPONSIBILITIES OF LIFE. 



345 



but in that of being made to stumble — then the 
Christian course is for thee to sacrifice thy liberty 
for love of him, even as Christ pleased not him- 
self that he might redeem us from all iniquity ; or 
as Paul has put it in the Epistle to the Corinthians 
(I quote from the Revised Version), " Give no occasion 
of stumbling, either to Jews, or Greeks, or to the 
church of God ; even as I also please all men in all 
things, not seeking mine own profit, but the profit of 
the many that they may be saved ; be ye imitators of 
me, even as I also am of Christ." Here then are the 
two principles; first, that things non-essential or in- 
different are to be determined by each for himself in 
the exercise of individual liberty and as unto Christ, 
and that no one is to judge another for his determina- 
tion, since none of us liveth unto himself, but unto 
Christ, and each is responsible to him alone; and 
second, that Avhile the right to this liberty is inalienable 
and may not be yielded on any ground, the acting on 
it is conditioned by the effect of our conduct on the 
brotherhood of believers, so that if it should provoke 
evil and not good, or give occasion to the falling of 
others into sin, we should abstain from carrying it 
into exercise, since "None of us liveth unto him- 
self," but the actions of each affect the welfare of the 
brotherhood to which all alike belong. 

Now the application of these principles to modern 
things is too obvious to need remark. In regard to all 
matters not in themselves sinful, the conscience of each 
believer is at liberty to judge what his conduct may be ; 
and to his own master he standeth or falleth. " All " 
such " things are lawful." But while it would be quite 
expedient to do certain things under one set of cir- 
cumstances, it would be just as inexpedient to counte- 
nance them in another. What is above all to be 
15* 



346 



THE RESPONSIBILITIES OF LIFE. 



regarded is that " the work of God " shall not be 
" overthrown " either by the uncharitable judgments 
of the more scrupulous, or the inconsiderate and 
inexpedient exercise of their liberty by the more 
enlightened. Not our own pleasure, but rather the 
glory of Christ, and the edification, and peace, and 
progress of the brotherhood, is to be made the rule 
of our lives. There are no specific prohibitions in 
the New Testament, except of such things as are 
positive sins ; and in regard to all others these prin- 
ciples must be our guides. It would be convenient 
no doubt, if the book or the preacher should decide 
for us whether we should go to particular places, or 
take part in particular amusements, or engage in 
particular practices concerning which we are per- 
plexed; but all these things are left to each con- 
science — not to do as it pleases, but to take the 
course which in the light of loyalty to Christ and 
love to the brethren, seems to be the best ; and it is in 
the decision of such questions for ourselves, that we 
grow into strength and develop into true Christian 
manliness. Insist upon liberty therefore in all such 
matters, but let the exercise of that liberty in every case 
be conditioned by love, for " it is good neither to eat 
flesh, nor to drink wine, nor to do any thing whereby 
thy brother stumbleth. All things are lawful, but all 
things are not expedient ; all things are lawful, but 
all things edify not. Let no man seek his own, but 
each his neighbors good," for " none of us liveth 
unto himself." 

II. But leaving now the consideration of the text as 
it is interpreted for us by the section of the epistle in 
which it is found, let us proceed to regard it more gen- 
erally, in the second place, as an inevitable condition 



THE RESPONSIBILITIES OE UEE. 



347 



of human existence. No man's life terminates on him- 
self alone, but each of us exerts an influence through 
his character and conduct upon all with whom he comes 
into contact. We are so constituted, and have been 
placed in such circumstances, that, whether we are con- 
scious of it or not, others are affected by our actions 
and example. Those nearest us are in a greater or a 
smaller measure molded by what we are, and these 
again have a like influence on those by whom they are 
surrounded, so that what emanated originally from us 
is at once perpetuated in its existence and amplified 
increasingly in its range. To use the trite illustration, 
just as the stone cast into the pool makes undulations 
which continually widen until they reach the edge, so 
the moral force generated by our character constantly 
widens through those on whom it operates. It would 
be easy to illustrate this by typical instances drawn 
from the pages both of sacred and secular history. 
Who does not remember how, long after the first king 
of Israel had gone to his account, the sad results of his 
idolatry remained active in the land, so that his name 
never occurs without the appended description, " the 
son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin? " The papacy 
to this day bears the impress of the mind of Hilde- 
brand, and almost every country on the globe has felt 
the effect of the life of Ignatius Loyola, whose succes- 
sors in the so-called Society of Jesus have gone to the 
ends of the earth. The same is true of the great re- 
formers of the sixteenth century, as well as of the 
pioneers of freedom and the founders of our nation. 
But these are not exceptional cases. True, they are 
the cases of men who had great abilities and exalted 
opportunities, and therein they were exceptional. But 
these abilities and opportunities have only put, as it 
were, in their case, into larger type, a truth which holds 



3'43 THE RESPONSIBILITIES OP LIFE. 

of every man. Influence is as inseparable from charactei 
as the fragrance is from the flower or the shadow from 
the substance. Every one that lives, therefore, lives not 
merely unto himself, but has a subtle effluence always 
radiating from him that produces some effect on others. 
On the rocks beneath us you will find the impress of the 
tiniest insect as well as that of the largest megathe- 
rium ; and so in the strata of society each man has his 
own place to fill, and will leave his own mark behind 
him for blessing or for the reverse. A little Hebrew 
maid in the house of Naaman was a most important 
factor in bringing about the cure of that great captain's 
leprosy ; and often yet a child's tiny hand may fire the 
mine that shall shake down even granite rocks. 

But, to come nearer ourselves, think how true it 
is in our homes that " none of us liveth unto him- 
self." The influence of parents upon their children 
is positively incalculable ; for the young are given 
to imitation, and are all the time taking on a living 
likeness of their elders. The words they hear and 
the actions they see day by day have all a power, 
and though they may pass away from the memories of 
both, they will live permanently in their results, so that 
parents will meet their children at the bar of God wear- 
ing the characters which by their daily lives they did so 
much to fashion. And the children, too, produce very 
marked and indelible effects upon their parents, while 
brothers and sisters twine around each other like run- 
ners up the wall, so that for every bend in the one 
there is a corresponding inclination in the other, and 
there is in each a difference from what might have been 
if the other had not been there. In like manner it is 
true of friends that there is ever going on between 
them an assimilating process, as the result of which 
they become like each other in tastes, opinions and 



THE RESPONSIBILITIES OF LIFE. 



349 



habits. Nathaniel's friendship with Philip was the 
means of introducing him to Jesus, and Jehoshaphat's 
companionship with Ahab placed his life in jeopardy 
that day in the field of Eamoth Gilead. So still the in- 
timate associates of a man have a molding influence 
on each other and on him, while he in turn is helping 
to form them. This influence on others is what I have 
called an inevitable condition of human existence. 
We cannot rid ourselves of it. It is the attendant 
shadow of each life, and takes its shape from the life. 
What a solemn thing it is, in this view of it, to live ! 
It is to be continually receiving from others, and as 
continually giving to others. How careful, therefore, 
we ought to be lest we should be contaminated by 
others, or should contribute to the undoing of others ! 
And if you would secure yourselves against both of 
these dangers, let me urge you to seek deliberately and 
prayerfully to live to Christ. Receive him into your 
hearts, and he will keep all evil out of them. Retain 
him in your hearts, and he will make them centers out 
of which nothing but good will issue. Watch the flower 
and the fragrance will take care of itself. Form your 
character after the pattern of Christ and your influence 
will be always Christian. To have the unconscious 
effluence of the best, you must have the conscious 
purpose always of the purest. To resist the evil 
you must retain the good. The moistened hand may 
hold with impunity the bar of white-hot iron, and he 
who is bedewed with the influences of the Holy Spirit 
will take no harm from those of the ungodly men by 
whom he is surrounded. Nor will he do harm to any 
by his example, but, contrariwise, that may be like the 
shadow of Peter, which healed the sick ones over 
which it passed. Ah ! how momentous the thought 
that each of us, by our very existence, is either bless- 



350 



THE RESPONSIBILITIES OF LIFE. 



ing or blighting some one else, according as ouf 
influence is good or evil ! Which is it ? Make haste 
and see, for you may start a train which you shall 
never be able either to overtake or to arrest, and 
though you may repent and return to God yourself, 
that other whom you introduced into the broad way 
may go on his downward course and end in destruc- 
tion ! Make haste, then, and see whether the effect 
of your life on others is good or evil ; and if it be evil, 
seek forgiveness and renewal at the hands of Christ. 

III. But now, finally, let me view this text as it 
expresses the deliberate purpose of every genuine 
Christian. The true believer forswears self. Other 
men, in one form or other, live for self. They seek 
their own pleasure, or their own interest, or their own 
honor. They make themselves the centers of all their 
ambitions, and care neither for other men nor for 
God when their personal predilections are in the case. 
But with the Christian it is different. And it is differ- 
ent not because some authority outside of him has 
said, Thou shalt not worship self, but because he has 
of his own motive, and out of love to Christ, renounced 
self and accepted Christ as the God of his heart and 
the sovereign of his life. Look here, for illustration, 
to the case of the Apostle Paul himself. In writing to 
the Philippians, he said, " To me to live is Christ ; " 
and in his second letter to the Corinthians he uses 
these words : " The love of Christ constraineth us, be- 
cause we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were 
all dead, and that he died for all that they which live 
should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto 
him which died for them and rose again." So also to 
the Galatians he says : "I live, yet not I but Christ 
liveth in me," while in the very next verse to that in 



THE RESPONSIBILITIES OF LIFE. 



351 



which the text for this morning is found, he affirms 
that, " whether we live, we live unto the Lord ; whether 
we die, we die unto the Lord ; whether we live, there- 
fore, or die, we are the Lord's." Now all these ex- 
pressions imply that Christ had taken in Paul the 
place which was formerly occupied by self. Where 
before he wrought for his own interest or glory or 
position, he now sought Christ's honor and labored 
for the advancement of his cause ; or, as he puts it in 
another phrase, " what things before were gain to him, 
those he counted loss for Christ." He felt himself so 
identified with Christ that his own interest and the 
Redeemer's glory seemed to be one and the same. He 
had become, as it were, merged in Christ. John the 
Baptist said, on a memorable occasion, concerning 
Jesus : " He must increase, but I "must decrease." Now 
that "which was true externally of John was true in- 
ternally and spiritually of Paul — the self in the apostle 
had decreased, and the Christ in him had increased, 
until it was all Christ and no self, so that in every- 
thing he did his dominating motive and main purpose 
were to honor Christ. In judging of any alternative 
put before him, the determining element always was, 
" Lord, what wilt thou have me to do ? " "When fashion 
was on one side and Christ on the other, he never 
hesitated, for now the approval of others was nothing 
to him in comparison with the commendation of 
Christ; and no sinful pleasure — even in the days be- 
fore his conversion — had for him a tithe of the enjoy- 
ment which he now derived from the consciousness 
that he was serving Christ and was beloved by Christ. 
Now it is the same with every real Christian. From 
the moment of his conversion his whole being runs 
Christward. The volume of the river may be small 
at first, but, small as it is, its direction is decided, and 



THE RESPONSIBILITIES OF LIFE. 

it gathers magnitude as it flows, for it drains the val- 
ley of his life. He keeps himself for Christ, because 
he owes everything to Christ. He realizes that he has 
been bought with a price, and therefore he seeks to 
glorify Christ in his body and his spirit, which are 
his. Duty and delight now coalesce in his experience. 
That which he ought to do, and that which he finds 
happiness in doing, are now to him identical, and his 
life illustrates the beautiful epigram of Philip Dod- 
dridge, whose family motto, "Dnm vivimus, vivamus," 
was thus rendered by him into English verse : 

" Live while you live, the epicure would say, 
And seize the pleasures of the passing day. 
Live while you live, the sacred preacher cries, 
And give to God each moment as it flies. 
Lord, in my view let both united be ; 
I live in pleasure while I live to thee." 

Now, this determination to live to Christ I have called 
the deliberate purpose of every genuine Christian, for 
so soon as a man believes that Jesus Christ loved 
him — gave himself for him — lie is moved by the Holy 
Ghost to give himself up to Christ, and then discovers 
that 

" A life of self-renouncing love 
Is a life of liberty." 

But living thus to Christ, the believer lives also for 
his fellow-men, for the two are inseparable, inasmuch 
as the great principle at the root of the cross is the 
sacrifice of self for the benefit of others ; and Jesus 
himself has indicated that our gratitude to him should 
take the form of ministering to the necessities of 
others for his sake. He bids us recognize himself in 
every ignorant one whom we can instruct, in every 
naked one whom we can clothe, in every hungry 
one whom we can feed, in every suffering one whom 



THE RESPONSIBILITIES OF LIFE. 



353 



we can relieve, and what we do for them he regards 
as done for him. Thus, while we live to him, we 
live also in the very highest sense for others, and find 
the purest and the sweetest happiness for ourselves, 
for we are enjoying a pleasure even when we are doing 
a duty. The " must " of benevolence in us is not that 
of outward constraint, but of inner impulse. It is the 
irrepressible " cannot but," and not the shuddering 
"I dare not but." We find our joy in seeking to 
make others joyful. The selfish man makes happiness 
the end he seeks, and so he never gains it, for when 
pursued in that way it flees from before him as the 
rainbow recedes from the deluded child who runs 
to find the pot of gold that is fabled to be at the 
place on which the ethereal arch doth seem to resfc. 
But when, renouncing self, we seek to make others 
better, holier, and nobler for Jesus' sake, then true 
happiness comes unsought, and comes to stay. When 
in the midnight hour you lie awake and wish for 
sleep, the more you try expedients to bring it to your 
pillow, the more it seems to flee from your pursuit. 
But when you turn your mind away from all such 
things and think on something quite apart from self, 
then, with muffled footstep, the angel of the night 
steals into your chamber and steeps your senses in 
forgetfulness. And so, the more eager you are for 
happiness as an object in itself, the more hopeless is 
your effort to attain it ; but when, renouncing self and 
seeking to live to Christ, you labor for the benefit of 
others; then happiness will come of itself and fill 
your heart with a foretaste of heaven's own blessed- 
ness. Thus, by living to Christ, the Christian secures 
these three things — the glory of Christ, the benefit 
of his fellow men, and his own highest happiness. 
And now, my unbelieving friends, what have you to 



354 



THE RESPONSIBILITIES OF LIFE. 



say to all these things ? Are you still determined to 
live to yourselves ? Y^hat profit have you had therein 
in the past ? You may have added to your wealth, but 
have you increased your happiness ? You may have 
multiplied your possessions, but what have you done 
that has served your generation, or honored your God, 
or glorified your Saviour ? And what of all that you 
have lived to accumulate or to enjoy can you take with 
you into that state where character shall be your only 
property? Live, I beseech you, for something that 
you can keep when death shall overtake you. Live to 
glorify God here, in the obedience of Christ and the 
love of your fellow-men, and you will find that in that 
way you will make friends of the mammon of unright- 
eousness, who, when you fail, shall receive you into 
the everlasting habitations which Christ has prepared 
for them that love him. 

And, my fellow Christians, shall not we renew our 
dedication to the Lord to-day, and seek henceforth 
more than ever to bless and benefit our fellow men for 
his sake ? What joy, what usefulness, what honor, 
have come to us as we have attempted to act on these 
principles in the past ? Let us, therefore, carry them 
out only more thoroughly than ever in the future. Few 
men in his generation sought to live so much for 
Christ and for his people as did Thomas Guthrie, the 
Scottish pulpit orator and philanthropist, and the se- 
cret of all was that he had learned at the foot of the 
cross to sacrifice self and to love all for whom the Mas- 
ter died. I have heard him often, and always with 
delight, but never, I think, with such quivering emo- 
tion tingling through my frame, as when, at the close of 
a glowing appeal for his ragged children, he repeated, 
with the deepest fervor, these lines, which were pecul* 
iarly appropriate on lips like his : 



THE RESPONSIBILITIES OF LIFE. 



355 



" I live for those who love me, 

For those who know me true ; 
For the heaven that smiles above me, 

And awaits my spirit, too ; 
For the cause that lacks assistance, 
For the wrongs that need resistance, 
For the future in the distance, 

For the good that I can do." 

That was his motto, because he had learned the mean- 
ing of the love of Christ to his own soul. Shall we not 
adopt it as our own from this time forth ? Let us live 
for the good that we can do as the disciples of Christ, 
and then we may very well leave all other things to 
take care of themselves, or rather, we may be sure 
that the Master whom we serve will take care of them 
for us. "Not unto ourselves, but unto Christ, and 
unto our fellow men for Christ's sake ; " so let us live 
here, and death when it comes will only promote us to 
a higher sphere, where we shall live to nobler purpose 
and to yet grander fruitage. 
March 18, 1883. 



THESE THINGS DONE AND OTHERS 
NOT LEFT UNDONE. 

Matthew xxiii, 23. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypo- 
crites ! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have 
omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy and faith : 
these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. 

The denunciations of the Pharisees, in connection 
with which these words occur, are the sternest utter- 
ances which came from the lips of Jesus. Indeed, they 
are in this respect so exceptional that they have oc- 
casioned much perplexity to many sincere Christians, 
and have been held up to scorn and execration by 
many antagonists of the gospel. But a clear concep- 
tion of the real nature of Phariseeism is all that is 
needed for their complete vindication, and as that will 
materially help us to a right understanding of the 
text, especially in its primary application, it may be 
well to set it distinctly before you in the outset of my 
discourse. 

The error of the Pharisees was not superficial, but 
fundamental. Their religion was not simply defective, 
but positively false. They were not insincerely striv- 
ing after that which was right ; but they were sincerely 
striving after that which was wrong ; or to take the Sav- 
iour's own illustration, they were building their house 
on a foundation of sand and not upon the firm and un- 
yielding rock. I know, indeed, that to many among 
us the Pharisees stand as the representatives of those 
who are deliberately seeking to impose upon others 



THESE THINGS DONE AND OTHERS NOT LEFT UNDONE. 357 

by professing to have that which they are conscious 
that they do not possess. That this was true of some 
who were called by that name is certain, for the Sav- 
iour speaks of them as " for a pretense making long 
prayers ;" but such a view cannot be entertained, for 
example, of Paul before his conversion. Neither his 
conduct in reference to the early disciples nor his 
subsequent allusions to his experience as a Pharisee 
will allow us to rest in the conviction that he was at 
that time willfully and deliberately seeking to deceive 
others. He was just as truly in earnest then as he 
was in his later life as a Christian Apostle ; but he 
was in earnest after the wrong thing. And so, judging 
of the others as a class by him, we may say that they 
had a radically false idea of what religion was ; and thus 
their very sincerity in its practice was fraught with the 
deepest danger to themselves, and the greatest mis- 
chief to others. Bishop Butler, in a somewhat neg- 
lected portion of his writings, has put the case in a way 
which reveals his accustomed insight, when he says : 
" They were not men without any belief at all in reli- 
gion, who put on the appearance of it only in order to 
deceive the world ; on the contrary, they believed their 
religion and were zealous in it. But their religion 
which they believed and were zealous in was in its 
own nature hypocritical, for it was the form, not the 
reality." * This witness is true. They resolved religion 
into a bundle of separate acts of ritual and prescrip- 
tion instead of regarding it as the character of the man 
himself ; or what in Scripture language is called the 
relation of the heart to God. They lost sight of that 
" moral unity " in the individual which makes him " a 



* Butler's Sermon before the House of Lords on the day appointed 
to be observed for the martyrdom of Charles I. 



358 THESE THINGS DONE AND OTHERS NOT LEFT UNDONE. 

good being as distinguished from a bad being," and 
which in the words of a great thinker* is " that general 
virtue which covers the motives " and which, " like 
some essence which we can hardly get at," is not itself 
so much as it is the goodness of everything else in 
him ; " not a virtue so much as the substratum of all 
virtues ; the virtue of virtue ; the goodness of good- 
ness." Thus their religion was a super-position from 
without ; not a manifestation of that which was within ; 
a garment by which the body was covered, and not the 
life of the body itself; a something separable from 
themselves, instead of their very innermost self; a 
fraction cut off from their lives and devoted to a special 
object ; instead of the very life of their lives, of which 
everything they did was but a part. 

Now to one who came, as the Lord Jesus did, to give 
prominence to the truth that " the Kingdom of God 
cometh not with observation," but is in very deed 
within men's hearts, the Pharisees stood forth as the 
representatives of the most pestiferous error. They 
occupied, so to say, the very center of the position 
which it was his mission to storm, and very naturally, 
therefore, against them his heaviest bombardment was 
directed. So as Mozley says,t the sternness of these 
denunciations " is part of the judicial language of the 
first advent," and "laid the foundations of the final 
judgment." The doctrine of the Pharisees was the 
fundamental heresy in human life it ; baptized into the 
name of religion that which had no right to such an 
appellation ; it robbed God of the whole, while osten- 
tatiously seeming to give him much more than he 
asked ; and therefore it called forth from the Lord 



* See Mozley's University Sermons, p. 29. 
\ Ibid, p. 29. 



THESE THINGS DONE AND OTHERS NOT LEFT UNDONE. 359 

Jesus the most scathing and indignant words which he 
was ever known to utter. 

But this is not all. Such radically erroneous 
notions concerning religion lulled the Pharisees into 
absolute self-security. The very essence of their 
hypocrisy was that it imposed upon themselves. Be- 
lieving religion to consist in a certain round of ritual 
observances and seeking zealously to perform that, 
they conceived that all was well with them ; thus it 
came that appeals which reached the hearts of others 
never affected them. It was awfully true that " the 
publicans and harlots " went into the kingdom before 
them. Calls to repentance did not effect them, for 
why should they repent of their goodness ? It was a 
false goodness indeed, as we have seen, but then its 
falseness was the very thing of which they were not 
conscious, and so extraordinary measures had to be 
taken in order to rouse them, if possible, to a sense 
of their danger. Hence in portions of the Sermon on 
the Mount, their exclusion from the kingdom at the 
last is represented as coming upon them as an awful 
and humiliating surprise ; and hence in the chapter 
before us the most terrible woes are pronounced over 
them, if haply the reverberations of the thunder 
might awake them to a true perception of the nature of 
the case. Thus the indignation in these verses sprang 
from the root of love, as you may easily see by reading 
on to the end of the chapter, for after " the whirlwind, 
the earthquake and the fire," comes this still small voice 
of plaintive yet baffled tenderness, " O, Jerusalem, 
Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets and stonest 
them which are sent unto you, how often would I 
have gathered thy children together, even as a hen 
gathered her chickens under her wings, and ye would 
not ! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate." 



360 THESE THINGS DONE AND OTHERS NOT LEFT UNDONE. 

But still further, we may account for the severity of 
these denunciations, from the fact that the Saviour 
foresaw that Phariseeism would, in after ages, become 
the greatest hindrance to the progress of his cause in 
the world. As one has pithily said, * " there are no 
extinct species in the w orld of evil ;" and most certainly 
this is true of the evil of which now we speak. Eor 
it is the shadow that invariably attends on spiritual 
life and follows after it. What was the Genesis of the 
Phariseeism of the Saviour's day? Something like 
this. There was a great religious revival among the 
Jews after their return from the captivity, which con- 
tinued for a considerable time ; and which, after they 
had rebuilt the Temple, sent them back to the law 
with a sincere desire to honor God by keeping its 
commands. So long as the life remained, the obe- 
dience was the real outcome of an inward principle ; 
but when the life died out, then the obedience became 
only a fossil, and was soon covered over with cor- 
ruption, until it became what we see it to have been, 
in the days of the Saviour upon the earth. But the 
same danger attends on every great spiritual move- 
ment, and we have many illustrations of it in the 
Christian Church. Thus a real devotion to Christ 
stimulates to reverent attention to the forms of wor- 
ship, and so long as that is simply an expression of 
loyalty to Him, ail is well ; but by and by all thought 
of him drops out, and then only the ritual remains, 
becoming the idol of the heart and so the life depart** 
"Who does not recognize in this the natural history oi 
Eitualism, whether in the Church of Borne or else- 
where ? So again the founders of the great monastic 
orders were all sincere and ardent reformers, and in 



* See Mozley's University Sermons, p. 32. 



THES3 THINGS DONE AND OTHERS NOT LEFT UNDONE. 361 

them and their immediate followers we see great self- 
sacrifice and devotion from the holiest motives ; but 
as years rolled on the life evaporated, and only the 
Pharisaic fossils of their orders remained. Thus we 
see how it comes that " the real virtues of one age are 
the spurious ones of the next," * and that what was a 
voice full of sincerity in one generation is often only 
an empty echo in that which follows. So Phariseeism 
has to be guarded against in every age of the Church's 
history, and more especially after times of special 
activity and life. The constant tendency is to retain the 
form after the life has departed, and to keep on doing 
as our fathers did, when we no longer feel as our 
fathers felt ; and any one who thinks deeply on the 
subject will be compelled to admit, that in the strength 
of that tendency, we have one of the greatest sources 
of the Church's weakness at the present day. Hence 
the words of the Lord in this chapter were prophetic 
as well as judicial ; and the very terror of them was 
intended to direct the attention of his people in every 
age to a danger that would be always imminent. We 
for example, have come in for the legacy of the church 
forms and customs of those who have gone before us, 
and so we must take heed that we do not continue 
these for their own sakes, but rather that we have the 
life of which they were the expression, and that 
we adapt the expression of that life to the circum- 
stances and requirements of our own times. 

These considerations will be enough, I hope, to vin- 
dicate the severity of the Saviour's words in the 
chapter before us, while, at the same time, they will 
show the importance of this subject to ourselves, and 



Mozley, as before. 



362 THESE THINGS DONE AND OTHERS NOT LEFT UNDONE. 

prepare us to understand what I have called the 
primary application of the text, to the special consid- 
eration of which I now proceed. 

It charges that the Pharisees were strictly attentive 
to the minutest matters of tithe, but omitted the 
weightier concerns of the law, judgment, mercy, and 
faith ; and then lays down the general maxim, " these," 
that is the weightier matters, "ye ought to have 
done, and not to have left the others undone." Now 
here two or three very important principles are im- 
plied. 

We learn, for example, that the commands of God 
are of different degrees of importance. There are 
matters of more weight than others, among the divine 
precepts. That God has commanded a thing, always 
invests it with a certain importance, but all his com- 
mandments are not of equal gravity. The heart that 
reverences him, indeed, will seek for his sake to render 
obedience to them all, but each in its own order. 
There are higher and lower obligations; and the 
higher will be first attended to, nay if need be, will 
absorb into them the lower. This is a distinction in 
morals kindred to that between things essential and 
non-essential in matters of faith, and it will be recog- 
nized by all. In any case it lies here upon the very 
surface of the text so plainly that I need not stay 
either to prove its existence or to point out its im- 
portance ; the rather as these will both be brought 
out in the second thing which the text teaches, 
namely : That the weightiest of all God's commands 
have respect to judgment, mercy, and faith. That is 
a truth which is emphasized over and over again both 
by the prophets of the Old Testament, and the Apostles 
of the New. Thus Samuel said to Saul, " To obey is 
better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of 



THESE THINGS DONE AND OTHERS NOT LEFT UNDONE. 363 

lanrbs." The same thought quivers through the 
solemn music of the fiftieth psalm ; while Isaiah rep- 
resents the Lord as saying to the rulers of his day 
whose hands were full of blood, "Tour new moons 
and your appointed feasts my soul hateth ; they are a 
trouble unto me ; I am weary to bear them." So also 
Paul exclaims in the most solemn manner, " Though I 
bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I 
give my body to be burned, and have not love, it 
profiteth me nothing." He does not mean that it is 
not a duty to feed the poor, or that it is not right to 
" resist unto blood striving against sin ;" but as both 
of these things may be done from sinful motives, the 
one from love of ostentatious display, and the other 
from a disposition not essentially different from that 
which animates the combatants in earthly war, neither 
of them may, in itself considered, be put into compar- 
ison with that love to God and love to men which is 
the result of the reception of Christ into the heart ; 
and which, wherever it exists, will always prompt to 
the performance of those things which are for the 
glory of J ehovah and the welfare of mankind. The 
inner is more important than the outer ; the spirit than 
the letter ; the principle than the action ; the character 
than the isolated deed. The heart is the great thing, 
" for out of it are the issues of life," and therefore it 
should have the first and the greatest attention. If 
that be wrong nothing can be right ; but if that be 
right, everything will partake of its quality. There- 
fore, in regard to " judgment, mercy, and faith," the 
Lord says positively, "these ought ye to have done ;" 
while in matters of tithe and prescription, he contents 
himself with the negative expression " and not to have 
left the others undone." Do the great things, and the 
smaller will follow in their train. Attend to the prin- 



364 THESE THINGS DONE AND OTHERS NOT LEFT UNDONE. 

ciple, and the exemplifications of ifc will come of them- 
selves. Look well to the character, and the conduct 
will correspond thereto. Keep the heart, and every- 
thing flowing from it will testify to that vigilance. 
This is of prime importance, and clearly indicates why 
so many who are awakened to a sense of the value of 
religion do yet fall short of its attainment. They try 
to reform their conduct in certain particulars. They 
resolve and re-resolve, but only to break their vows ; 
and all this because they are proceeding on a wrong 
plan. They are working from a point in the circum- 
ference instead of from the center. They are trying 
to reform the heart from the conduct instead of the 
conduct from the heart ; and so they have to lay afresh 
the whole foundation ; and they have to do that by 
building upon Christ, and coming to him for the 
renewal which only his Spirit can effect. This looks 
very simple, yet simple as it looks, there are many 
among us who have never truly apprehended it, and 
therefore I have tried with all plainness of speech to 
make it clear. 

But another thing taught us in this verse is, that 
attention to the matters of less importance will not 
compensate for the neglect of those which are of 
essential moment. Punctilious tithe-paying will not 
condone oppression, or injustice, or the lack of humble 
faith in God. It was no answer to the charge of 
" devouring widow's houses " for the Pharisee to say 
" I fast twice in the week and give tithes of all that I 
possess." Kitual is not religion ; it is only, even at 
the best, the outer garment which she wears on cer- 
tain occasions ; but religion herself is character ; and 
that is a moral unit, giving its quality both to the 
worship and to the ordinary conduct of the man. It 
is no vindication for my not doing a most important 



THESE THINGS DONE AND OTHEES NOT LEFT UNDONE. 365 

duty, to say that I have done something else that is 
on a far lower plain. If a man has dishonestly ap- 
propriated the money which was intrusted to his care, 
he is not to be excused because he can say, " I was a 
regular attendant upon church, I was a Sunday-school 
teacher, or I was a liberal giver to benevolent objects." 
That does not alter the character of his dishonesty ; 
it only reveals the radical wrongness of his religion, 
and shows that he is a modern Pharisee, who regards 
religion as a thing of rubrics and ritual, and times and 
seasons, and temporary engagements, instead of a 
matter of heart and life. Oh ! my hearers, how many 
such cases there have been in recent years ! and how 
necessary, therefore, it becomes for us to examine into 
the foundation on which we are building ; whether the 
rock, with its moral unity of character solidified by 
the regeneration that comes from the Holy Spirit 
through faith in Jesus Christ ; or the sand, with its 
particles of separate and isolated actions held together 
by no principle of regard to God, and fused into no 
firm coherence by love to Christ. 

And to mention only one other point this text sug- 
gests, that where the heart is right with God through 
faith in Jesus Christ, both the weightier matters and 
those of less importance will be properly attended to. 
Not in so many words, indeed, are we taught this 
truth here. But we must put this passage alongside 
of many similar utterances of the Lord Jesus. Take 
the following as a specimen : " Either make the tree 
good and his fruit good, or else make the tree corrupt 
and his fruit corrupt, for the tree is known by his 
fruit. A good man out of the good treasure of the heart 
bringeth forth good things ; and an evil man out of 
the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things." "The 
light of the body is the eye ; if therefore thine eye be 



366 THESE THINGS DONE AND OTHERS NOT LEFT UNDONE. 

single thy whole body shall be full of light. But if 
thine eye be evil thy whole body shall be full of dark- 
ness ; if therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, 
how great is that darkness !" " Marvel not that I say 
unto thee, ye must be born again." These and kindred 
sayings which might be quoted in abundance all go to 
show that a new nature is the fundamental need of 
the sinner. With that he must begin ; and for that 
he must go in humble faith to him of whom it is said, 
" as many as received him, to them gave he power to 
become the sons of God, even to them that believe on 
his name — which were born, not of blood, nor of the 
will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." 
This is the beginning of the whole matter. True 
holiness, which is that character that performs every 
duty in its own place, and gives to each its own im- 
portance, is not the result of human effort alone, but 
the work of God's Spirit promised to those and only 
to those who cordially receive Jesus Christ as their 
Bedeemer and Lord ; and so if we wish to have it we 
must commence not with working, but with believing ; 
or, if you choose to express it differently, our first work 
must be believing in Christ, for i( this is the work of 
God, that ye believe in him whom he hath sent." 
Begin there, my hearers, and that will save you from 
the insidious danger of the Phariseeism, which I have 
been trying this morning to analyze and to expose. 

But while thus in its contexual application the text 
is full of instruction and warning to those who have 
been hitherto simply and only Pharisees, it has in it 
also a principle of great value for the guidance of 
Christ ? s own disciples, for it clearly teaches that the 
performance of one duty must not be pleaded as an 
excuse for the neglect of another. In all such matters 



THESE THINGS DONE AND OTHERS NOT LEFT UNDONE. 367 

what is put before us is not an alternative, as whether 
we shall do this or that, but an aggregate, for we are 
to do this and that. Now thus understood, the lesson 
of the text is susceptible of manifold applications. 

It speaks to the minister in the pulpit, and tells 
him that in his discourses his question ought never to 
be, whether shall I preach for the conversion of sin- 
ners, or for the edification of believers ; but rather 
how shall I prepare my sermons so as to secure both 
the ^^J3-building of God's people, and the ^n-building 
of those who are yet out of Christ ? He is to do the 
one but he is not to leave the other undone. Of the 
two in some circumstances the preaching to sinners 
may be the more pressingly important ; and in 
others, the training of those who are already disciples 
may demand the larger attention; but always he 
ought to have both in his aim ; for both alike are 
duties required at his hands. If the Acts of the 
Apostles be in the New Testament to show him how 
to " do the work of an Evangelist," the Apostolic 
Epistles are also there to let him see how to " feed 
the flock over which the Holy Ghost has made him 
overseer ;" and if he will study these well and faith- 
fully he may perhaps find in the example of Paul 
something that will help him to edify believers even 
when he is preaching to sinners ; or to probe the con- 
sciences of sinners even when he is seeking the pro- 
motion of holiness in those who are already Christ's. 
But if he neglect either, he is, so far forth, unfaithful, 
and for the passing over of the one, the doing of the 
other will be no excuse. Nay the effect in either case 
will be disastrous. If he continually preach for the 
awakening of sinners, then in proportion as his hearers 
are converted, they will pass away from him and seek 
a teacher who shall lead them forward ; while if he 



368 THESE THINGS DONE AND OTHEES NOT LEFT UNDONE. 

confine himself to the training of believers, his 
church will ere long become depleted by death and 
removals, and no others will come to take the vacant 
places. In this way, undue preponderance of either 
will work injuriously to the permanent usefulness of 
the church, and he is the wise and well instructed 
scribe who, while doing the one, will contrive also not 
to leave the other undone. 

But there is in this principle, thus understood, a 
lesson also for the church. It exists, as our own man- 
ual has well put it, " for mutual edification and en- 
couragement in Christian life ; and for the advance- 
ment of the Redeemer's Kingdom." Therefore it 
must not neglect aggressive work on the outlying 
world, for the fostering of the growth and comfort of 
its members ; and neither must it neglect the growth 
and comfort of its members for the prosecution of 
evangelistic effort among those who are " ignorant 
and out of the way." Here again it may be said " this 
ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other un- 
done." There have been times when the aggressive 
has somewhat eclipsed the educational ; and then ex- 
travagance and emotion have set in like a flood. But 
again there have been times when the educational has 
overshadowed the aggressive, and then intellect has run 
to seed into doctrinal error, and often also into abso- 
lute unbelief. Thus there are dangers on either hand. 
The Salvation Army, with its irreverent modes of 
speech and somewhat shocking methods, will illustrate 
the peril of becoming simply and only aggressive ; the 
Unitarian defection, with its ultimate developments 
into such disintegration as Boston saw in the breaking 
up of Theodore Parker's company of followers, and 
we in New York have witnessed in the dissolution 
of Mr. Frothingham's congregation, will illustrate 



THESE THINGS DONE AND OTHEKS NOT LEFT UNDONE. 369 

the danger of devoting ourselves entirely to self- 
culture. 

The wise church will steer clear of both extremes 
by carrying on the work of mutual edification abreast 
of that of evangelistic aggressiveness. I know not in 
which direction our danger lies. Perhaps in that of 
giving undue preponderance to the simple maintenance 
of our own church life, and yet after the announce- 
ment which I have made this morning in reference to 
our Bethany enterprise, 45 " I may not indulge in any 
such suspicions. Let me content myself rather with 
uttering a warning against the one-sidedness that 
would give the preference to either, and then, by the 
guidance of God's Spirit, we may be able to keep each 
in its normal proportion in our thoughts and prayers 
and efforts. 

But speaking still of the Church, the same prin- 
ciple holds in regard to the home and foreign 
missionary enterprises. Concerning these also we 
must say, " This ought ye to have done, and not to 
have left the other undone." Both alike are duties ; 
and as far as possible, both should be carried on 
abreast. Sometimes the Home effort may claim 
the larger share of attention, as I think it does, in a 
country like our own into which we are receiving 
foreign population at the rate of hundreds of thou- 
sands every year. But then, work prosecuted among 
these is, in a very true sense, foreign work as well as 
home. Sometimes, again, as in a country like Scot- 
land, which, if anything, is rather overchurched than 
underchurched, the main effort should be put forth in 
the foreign field. But always there should be an 



* The New Bethany Church on Tenth Avenue was dedicated on the 
Sunday after this discourse was preached. 



370 THESE THINGS DONE AND OTHEKS NOT LEFT UNDONE. 

outlook upon both, and work put forth on both. If 
we content ourselves with home work, we shall be- 
come selfish, self-conceited, and disagreeable — the 
Pharisee among the nations saying with contempt, 
" Thank God we are not as they !" and that will issue 
in national humiliation. If, again, we restrict our- 
selves to foreign, we may find our own cities, like the 
garden of the sluggard, overrun with " thorns " and 
"nettles," and "the stone wall thereof broken down." 
They who have true leal-hearted love to Christ will 
take a warm and living interest in both, as is evident 
in the fact that we find the same individuals on the 
platforms of both, and the church that labors earnestly 
in both will make sure and steady progress, and be 
marked with holy peace. If you seek to propel a boat 
with one oar, you will simply turn it round and round ; 
but if you use both you "go forward;" and so true 
church prosperity depends on the carrying forward of 
both home and foreign missions. 

But turning now to the household, we may see how 
there also the same principle holds good. Public relig- 
ious services must not be made the substitute for home 
duties ; and again home duties must not be pleaded as an 
apology for the neglect of public ordinances. Arrange- 
ments ought to be made for rightly engaging in both. 
The instructing of other people's children must not 
be allowed to keep us from giving needed attention to 
the godly upbringing of our own. And again the train- 
ing of our own families should not be made a plea for 
exemption from all effort for the spiritual welfare of 
those of others It is sometimes seen that the child- 
ren of those who have been prominent in Sunday- 
school work grow up in utter carelessness ; but then 
occasionally we also see that the sons of those who 
kept themselves rigidly at home for their training have 



THESE THINGS DONE AND OTHEKS NOT LEFT UNDONE. 371 

become absolute reprobates. So that both extremes 
are bad, simply because they are extremes. Home 
is the weightier, and of its duties we may say un- 
hesitatingly, " these ought ye to have done ," but then 
other forms of effort claim assistance, and of these we 
must say, " and not to leave the other undone." A 
workman meeting a friend on the street in Edinburgh, 
one Monday morning, said to him, "Why were you 
not at church last night ? our minister preached an 
excellent sermon on home religion. Why were you 
not there to hear it?" "Because," was the answer, 
" I was at home doing it." That was a good answer, 
for the service was an extra one, and the man had 
been at church twice before. So he was right, with 
the third, to give his home duties the preference. But 
then, on the other hand, the " at home doing it " is 
not all, and it should be so provided for as not to take 
away from proper attendance on regular ordinances, 
otherwise the result will be that after awhile religion 
will not be much cared for either in the church or in 
the home. A tardy student coming late into the class 
was asked by his professor to account for his want of 
punctuality, and replied that he had delayed for 
purposes of private devotion. But his teacher very 
properly reproved him by saying, " you had no right 
to be at your prayers, when you ought to have been 
here ; it is your duty to make such arrangements 
that the one shall not interfere with the other." So 
I say in regard to the conflicting claims of the house- 
hold and the church upon you. Make arrangements 
for giving due attention to both, and do not sacrifice 
the one on the shrine of the other. 

Finally, take it in its individual bearing, and you 
will see at once to how many things this principle 
may be applied. Does business say one thing, and 



372 THESE THINGS DONE AND OTHERS NOT LEFT UNDONE. 

the closet another? then do not give up the one for the 
other, but see to it that you secure both. Are you 
interested in evangelistic operations ? well, that is ex- 
cellent ; but do not so neglect your business for them 
that it shall get into confusion and bring you and your 
Christian profession alike into reproch. Not many 
years ago, Mr. Spurgeon publicly reproved some in 
his church for so neglecting their business for the 
work of preaching that they found themselves at 
length in the bankruptcy court. That was bad. But 
then it is equally bad for merchants to become so 
absorbed in business on all days and at all hours, that 
they have neither time nor strength to give to efforts 
for the welfare of others, and allow our missionary 
Sunday-schools and churches to languish for lack of 
their assistance. It is all a matter of proportion, and 
it ought to be solemnly pondered by every one of us. 
Let us, therefore, in the light of the principle on which 
I have been insisting, look at our lives and see if there 
be not many things in them out of proportion; the 
weightier being sacrificed for those which are less im- 
portant. When the painter is at work, you will see 
him stepping back every little while from his canvas 
that he may be sure his perspective is right. So let 
us go apart a little by ourselves to-day and test the 
perspective of our lives. Let us examine whether we 
are not neglecting some things of great moment for 
the sake of others of mere transitory interest and may 
God enable us to act out the principle which we have 
found this morning in the Saviour's words. Amen. 
March 4, 1883. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




01/ 579 132 2 



